This is not a love song
by sopheliasophy
Summary: Or maybe it is? Caroline finds herself on a roadtrip with Klaus. How the hell did that happen? Well, at least this gives her time to fix him properly.
1. the sweetest chill

AN: A lot of folks asked me if I would write a story that explains how Klaus and Caroline ended up a couple, so here we go. This takes place in the 'That looks on tempest' universe, and fills in the gaps between chapter 20 and the one-year-later epilogue.

If I have done my job right, you should not need to read 'That looks on tempests and is never shaken' in order to enjoy this story. But just in case . . . basically, this starts a few months after the events of the S3 finale. It is near the end of the school year, and the beginning of summer. Elena is a vampire with complications, Damon and Klaus are running against each other for mayor of Mystic Falls, and Stefan and Katherine are sort of together. It's less crazy than it sounds, trust me.

And honestly? None of those things actually matter very much to this story. We will move past them very quickly.

* * *

"Is it okay if I stop by?"

"What?"

Caroline shifted the phone to her other ear, as she changed lanes. "You know, stop by your house? You are at home, right?"

"Caroline?"

"Um, yeah."

"Why would you - but yes, it's fine, of course. I am at home."

" 'Kay, bye."

Caroline bit her lip, ans she pulled into Klaus's driveway. When she had suggested this to Damon, it had seemed like such a stellar idea. But now she was less sure.

She rolled down the window, and waved at one of Klaus's last two hybrids, who was doing some kind of landscaping in the front yard along the driveway. "Hey, Jason."

He just nodded and grunted at her. Charming guy. Of course, she would be grumpy too, if she was sired to Klaus and only had dumb Marissa, the other hybrid, as company. Caroline was so glad Tyler had managed to break the sire bond.

She checked her lipstick in the mirror after stopping the car by the front door. Despite what Damon had suggested, there was so not going to be any sexytimes with Klaus. Not on this mission, not on any mission, not ever. Well, not ever again.

Klaus had the door open before she had even exited her car. She walked up to him, not quite sure how she was going to approach him this time. Cheery and breezy? Stern and unforgiving? There were so many ways. She would just play it by ear.

"Hey, there," Caroline said when she reached the door.

Klaus said nothing, he just stood aside and let her enter. The heels of Caroline's new boots echoed on the marble of the entry hall.

Caroline didn't wait for him to show her to the side parlor, she walked ahead and then kicked off her boots before sitting down on the couch. She tucked one foot underneath her, and stretched out her leg and flexed the other foot.

"Sorry," she said, waving a hand in the air. "They were _killing_ me. I bought them last week, so they should totally been broken in by now - but it's a stubborn kind of leather, I guess. And they are way too tight to wear with tights or socks or anything."

Klaus looked away from her bare foot, and cleared his throat. "By all means, Caroline. Make yourself at home."

"Speaking of, can I get a diet anything?"

Klaus called out, "Marissa?"

A blonde head poked around the corner of the doorway. "Yes, Klaus?"

Klaus sat down in a chair across from Caroline. "Please, fetch our guest a Diet Coke from the kitchen. No ice, with a straw. Preferably of the crazy variety. The kind that goes loop-the-loop."

Caroline looked at him in surprise, "Oh, you do pay attention."

Klaus merely nodded, and waved a hand at Marissa in dismissal.

"So, Caroline, to what do I owe this great pleasure? The last time we were in communication, I believe you called me 'creepy'. "

"Well, yeah. You called and wanted to go to prom with me. You are a zillion years old. That's creepy." Caroline shifted her weight on the couch. "That's like, the definition of creepy."

"I enjoy dancing with you, Caroline. You know that."

"Yep, I get it." She eyed him with some trepidation. "Okay, so why I am here . . . see, there's an issue that maybe you can help with."

"I am at your service. As always."

"Well, I don't know if you are going to say that after I explain. So you know how Katherine has always got some kind of side game going on, and she's all shifty and scheme-y?"

"Well aware of Katerina's less than admirable character traits."

"Right. So she left town yesterday, and she took Stefan with her. Which sucks and now we are all worried about him, because he's all lobotomized and nobody knows where they are."

Klaus opened his mouth and then paused, as Marissa came in with Caroline's drink. "Here you go, Caroline."

"Thanks," Caroline responded, taking the drink from her. "Did you do something different with your hair?"

Marissa touched her hair for a second. "Oh, just new highlights. You like?"

Caroline tilted her head, and then took a sip through her straw. "Hmmm. I think you could go even lighter, honestly. Maybe something with less honey tones and more wheatstraw? But the good kind of wheatstraw, not the brassy kind?"

"Leave us, Marissa," Klaus said, sharply. Marissa nodded, and left the room.

Caroline shook her head. "You know, you could totally be nicer to them. They aren't your servants. And of course, even if they were your servants, you should still be so much nicer to them."

"I will take that under advisement. What did you mean by 'all lobotomized'?"

"Oh, right. Katherine had this witch do some kind of voodoo love spell to Stefan, so now he's like her boyfriend, but it's super creepy because he's so not himself at all. Just follows her around all 'I love you, Katherine, whatever you say, Katherine', and Damon had this plan to take her down and fix Stefan, but she got spooked and ran off with him. With Stefan, obviously, not with Damon. Damon would never run off with Katherine, he's still crazy in love with Elena."

Klaus stood, and paced in front of the fireplace. "I never gave her permission to leave town."

"She needs your permission?" At his look, she said "Oh, guess so. Well, then . . . can you get her to bring him back? Do you know how to reach her?"

"Of course I can reach her. She has the same kind of phone that my hybrids carry, so I can be in communication with her at all times. Under the terms of our truce, she is to maintain weekly contact - and she is supposed to be looking for the silver stake, not consorting with witches and running off with her ex."

"Yeah, well, does she know that?"

Klaus shot her another quelling glance.

Caroline shrugged. "Okay, sorry. Can you make her bring Stefan back, then?"

"I care nothing about Stefan Salvatore and his troubles. But I will certainly request that Katerina return to Mystic Falls. And I will demand an explanation from her."

Caroline snorted. "Sure, you don't care about Stefan. You just have like, the most epic bromance with him of all time."

Klaus responded, "It doesn't matter what you believe. That is all past. Stefan and his brother have brought me nothing but grief."

"You were friends," Caroline said softly. "You were friends and you cared about him, and I know you. You don't stop caring that easily."

Changing the subject abruptly, Klaus asked, "Does Damon know that you are here?"

"He didn't want me to come. He wants no favors from you."

"Well, my erstwhile opponent shows some sense."

"Oh please, you are hardly real opponents. Damon has this mayoral race wrapped up." Catching herself, Caroline backtracked, "I mean, that's what my mom says. Personally, I don't care anything about politics. So silly."

Klaus said, "Of course, you don't. It would be mad to think otherwise." The look on his face made Caroline wonder if he knew something. Had he figured out that Caroline was working secretly on Damon's campaign against him? They had been so careful and covert.

She took another sip from her drink, and then said, "Well, anyway. That's all I came for." She set her drink on the side table, and started to pull her boots back on. "Ouch."

"Allow me," Klaus said, coming over to her and kneeling in front of her. He took one of her bare feet in his hands, lightly stroking her instep before tugging the boot onto her foot and slowly pulling it up her leg.

Caroline couldn't help herself, she gave a little shiver. He reached for the other foot, but she pulled away from him, hurriedly shoving the boot on herself. With one finger, Klaus traced the outer seam of her jeans up her calf.

"Do you remember-" he began, looking up at her, but Caroline cut him off. "Don't."

"You don't like to recall the details of our night together?"

"Of course not," Caroline said with a huff. She stood up, and stepped back, trying to put some distance between them.

Klaus stood up as well, and stepped closer to her. "I do. I remember it all the time. The small motel with the green carpet, the way the Tennessee night felt like silk. You and me in that dark room, watching fireflies through the torn window screen. How I held you, and how you cried with happiness. I kissed your tears away, Caroline. I remember it all."

"Well, have fun with your pervy fantasies, then. I can't _believe_ you would even bring that up. Ew."

" 'Ew' was not what you were saying at the time," Klaus said lightly, with a small smile. "Your exact words were 'I didn't know it could be like this' ."

"I was talking to Tyler! You were inside Tyler's body. I thought _you_ were Tyler. I was saying that to him."

"But you weren't, not really. You would never have said that to him, because he could never have made you feel that way."

"Shut up. It was months ago. God, you just need to move on," Caroline said, heading towards the door. Klaus quickly blocked her way out.

"You came here freely, Caroline. You made the choice to come. Your excuse about Stefan aside, you chose to come and see me. You wanted to."

Caroline shook her head, and wouldn't look him in the eye. She said, "You can't keep doing this every time you are near me. Why are you even still here? There is no good reason to stay in Mystic Falls. You don't really want to be mayor of this stupid town. You keep talking to me about all of the beauty and art out there in the big, wide world - well, then why don't you just go?"

"You know why I stay, Caroline. You've always known why."

"Leaving now," Caroline said, putting he hands against his chest to move him aside. He was like a stone wall up against her. Klaus raised his hands to cover hers. He was stone, he was mossy green, he was warm, he was safe, he was not safe. "No, no, no," Caroline said, shaking her head. "It's like this every time."

In almost a whisper, Klaus said to her, "And yet you still come around. One excuse after another. To talk to Rebekah about planning prom, to borrow a dress from Marissa, to have me to sign a petition to save the whales, to ask me to bring Katerina back to Mystic Falls. _You _keep coming around here, Caroline." He pinned her with his gaze, and she swallowed hard.

Caroline shook her head again. "I don't want this. I don't."

Klaus raised an eyebrow at her - then he released her hands, and stepped back. "Very well. You are not ready yet, I understand. Well, there's the door, love. Drop by anytime, of course."

Caroline kept her head down, as she brushed past him in the doorway. She knew he was watching her through the open door as she got into her car, but she would not let herself look back at him.

When she drove away, it was an escape. It was both cowardly and brave at the same time, but at least she could breathe again. She wasn't going to go back there, she wasn't.

* * *

Her resolve lasted all of two weeks. She was there on his doorstep, the rain soaking through her maroon graduation gown, the wet tassel on her silly hat hanging in her eyes, less than an hour after the graduation ceremony had ended.

"Caroline," Klaus said, no inflection in his voice. No surprise, no judgement.

"Hey," she said, as she wiped a trail of mascara off her cheek. "I'm not crying. It's just the rain."

"Of course it is." Klaus stood aside, and she entered the foyer.

He held his hand out to her, and she took her bedraggled hat off and handed it to him. "The gown, too."

"Oh, sorry." She struggled to pull the gown off over her head, so Klaus did it for her. He laid the gown and hat over the railing of the stairs, where they dripped onto the marble floor.

"Someone might slip in that," Caroline said, indicating the rapidly growing puddle.

Klaus shrugged. "We're all vampires here. I don't believe it matters."

"True. So," Caroline began, and then stopped.

"You came by because?" Klaus said, in an encouraging tone.

"Oh, right. Because," Caroline took a deep breath. "Because you need to tell your sister to stop taking Tyler to that place. That club or whatever."

"Really? That is why you are here?" Klaus raised an eyebrow at her. "I assume you mean the one in Richmond."

"Right. That stupid place with all of those stupid girls who line up to have vampires bite them. 'Oh, it's so exciting! A _real_ vampire! What pointy teeth you have!' Ugh. It's disgusting."

"Every decent sized town has one of those. That's a particularly good one, actually. I've recruited from there myself."

Caroline made a face at him. "You are not helping. It's a dumb place and the girls are all dumb."

"If you say so. You didn't come here to ask me to talk my sister, though."

"I didn't? I mean, I did."

"No. For one thing, you are more than capable of talking to Rebekah yourself. And for another thing, you know that I have no interest in what Tyler and Rebekah are up to."

Caroline turned her head away from him. "Are Marissa and Jason here?"

"No. I gave them permission to go to Matt Donovan's graduation party at the Salvatore Boarding House tonight."

"That was probably a mistake. Damon hates hybrids, you know that. He's just as likely to tear their hearts out as he is to let them into a party at his house."

"You are avoiding the topic at hand, Caroline. Why are you here?"

"I told you."

"No, you didn't," Klaus responded, gently. "But that is perfectly okay, love. You don't have to."

Abruptly, Caroline turned to him and said, "Can we go somewhere?"

Klaus hesitated, and then asked, "Upstairs, you mean?"

Caroline shook her head. "No. In your car. Can we just get into your car, and go? Somewhere? Anywhere?"

Klaus nodded slowly. "Absolutely, Caroline. Anywhere. You just tell me when to stop."

"Well, do we have to?"

"Do we have to what?"

"Stop," Caroline said, with a sigh. "I have the feeling that once we get going, we won't."


	2. young folks

"No," Caroline said, putting a hand on Klaus's arm when he turned to go upstairs. "Don't bring anything. If you take the time to bring a bunch of stuff, I am totally going to change my mind."

"Well, we can't have that. Let's go." Klaus did grab his wallet from the entry hall table, but that was all. He and Caroline went back out into the rain together. The rain had lessened, thankfully, and had become a mere drizzle.

"I can't believe I walked here from the high school," Caroline remarked, as Klaus opened the door to his six car garage. "Of course, if I had driven over, I would have had my suitcases in my car, and I wouldn't be facing going out into the world in nothing but this dress and Tory Burch flats." She looked down at her very wet shoes. "Which are ruined."

"It's a nice dress, and you look charming in it."

Caroline rolled her eyes at him. Her makeup washed away, and her hair lying in wet strands, she knew 'charming' wasn't the right word.

Klaus smiled. "But yes, your shoes are done for, I'm afraid." He waved a hand at the cars in the garage. "Your choice, Caroline."

"That one." She pointed at a silver Audi. Klaus took keys from a peg board on the wall, unlocked the passenger door and held it open for her. She slid in, wincing when she caught sight of her shoes again. "And I loved these so much. My dad and Steven bought them for me."

Klaus got into the car, and they pulled out of the garage and out of the driveway. He drove smoothly and far too fast, just the way she knew he would. They didn't speak again, not until the car was on the freeway, heading north.

Then Klaus turned his head to her, and asked, "Ready to talk about it?"

"That's the thing. There isn't really anything to talk about."

"I doubt that is true. To begin with, why were your suitcases in your car?"

"Tyler and I were supposed to be doing _this_ right now. A trip to Virginia Beach, as a joint graduation gift from our moms."

"Ah. Delightful. And you are not doing that because?"

"Because?" Caroline looked away from him. She stared out the window. "Just because."

"You had a disagreement with Tyler?"

"Not really. I mean, yeah we've been fighting all the time about those stupid girls from that stupid club, and about how he spends like, all of his free time lately playing video games with Matt and Jeremy- really, God, how entirely pointless. But no, we didn't have a big blowout at graduation, if that is what you are hoping to hear."

"I have no such hopes, Caroline."

"Good. You shouldn't. I didn't break up with Tyler."

"You are sending a pretty strong message, right now, though, are you not? Whether you verbally broke up or not seems moot to me."

"I don't know. Maybe."

"And?"

"And what?"

"Well, it is evident that there is more to this. You walked to my house in the rain, Caroline. Over seven miles."

"It was - oh, God, I don't even know. It was the speeches, okay?"

"The speeches at your graduation ceremony?"

"Yes. They were very . . . speechy."

"Yes? And?"

"God, you are relentless. Fine, so the salutatorian, Ashley Woodson, she gave a lovely speech, all about seizing the day and everything, and yeah it was totally cliche and meant nothing, really. But then, Brandon Fell is our valedictorian, right? And he gets up, and it's all very blah blah blah, and I wasn't even listening, not even a little bit, because I hate Brandon Fell, that weasel- as soon as I started wearing a bra, he called me 'C cup Forbes' and that nickname stuck _all_ through middle school - but then he said 'This life is short, don't let your short life be full of regrets', which, God, could you be even _more_ cliche than Ashley, and it just hit me. This life _isn't_ short. I mean, yes, his is. Thank God. But mine isn't. A thousand more birthdays, isn't that what you said to me? A _thousand._ It's just . . . it's just _stretching_ in front of me. Miles of years. And I think I just freaked."

"Vertigo, sweetheart," Klaus said, with a chuckle.

"What?"

"That view of eternity? It's very much like vertigo, disorientation from looking down from a great height. You live as a human would live, Caroline. You never deal with such things, never let yourself consider what your immortality might mean. So it hits you very hard when it does happen."

"I'm not stupid. I do know what vertigo is. Anyway, whatever you want to call it, it sucked. When it was my turn to go up and get my diploma, I stood up and went to the stage. I shook Mrs. Pepon's hand, I took the silly little rolled up paper. I waved at everybody cheering for me. And then I just walked off. And kept on walking. Off the stage, out of the gym . . . all the way to your house." Caroline sighed. "Clearly, I am having some kind of breakdown."

"What did you do with your diploma?"

"I don't even remember. I probably just dropped it in the woods." Caroline brought a hand up to cover her mouth. "Oh, God. I'm president of the Mystic Falls Beautification committee. I'm going to have to levy a fine against myself."

"You amuse me, Caroline. Greatly." Klaus smiled at her, and Caroline caught herself almost smiling back.

"That wasn't all of it. I mean, there was this moment, you know? This super crisp moment while I was standing on that stage, and I was looking out at all those people, sitting on chairs, and it was like, is this me? I'm in this silly robe, and I have on this ridiculous hat. I'm holding this silly paper. I could feel the texture of it in my hand, and I was like, is this my hand holding this paper? Will this always be my hand? Forever, is this going to be me? What are we all _doing_? I could eat you people. I could just dive right into that audience, and I could eat all of you. I could be wading in your blood in a matter of minutes. Or not. Or I could just walk away, and keep on walking."

"You had a classic Heidegger moment, love. You were a Being for whom being was a question."

"Wow, I tell you that I have just experienced a mental _crisis, _and you want to talk about German philosophy? Seriously?"

"It might have been more of a Sartrean moment, anyway. Are you more comfortable being compared to French philosophers?"

"I'd be more _comfortable_, if I wasn't dipping wet and making your leather interior equally wet." Caroline squirmed. "I'm squishing everywhere."

"We could stop. Would you like me to stop?"

"Not a stop. Maybe a pause? The next Walmart you see, pull over. "

Klaus made a face. "Walmart?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Well, if you are going to be all snooty about it, we can go to Target instead."

* * *

Watching Klaus walk through Target had been hysterically funny, and put Caroline in a much better frame of mind. It wasn't the people that bothered him, it was how nearly everything in the store was made of plastic. He stalked through the aisles with a scowl the size of Texas on his face, mumbling '"Made in China" and "Dishwasher safe, why would that even need to be dishwasher safe" at every turn.

Caroline scored a super cute Missoni maxi dress, and a pair of flip flops. Then she spotted some glitter ballet flats, and her day was made. Toiletries, a Paul Frank beach towel, a hair dryer, a tourmaline straightener, three more summer dresses, panties, and an overnight bag later, and she was ready for a Coke Icee (with a splash of cherry please) and a giant pretzel. Klaus took one sip of her Icee, and she thought he was going to gag up that morning's blood bag. He did eat most of her pretzel, though.

She changed her clothes in the Target bathroom, repaired her makeup, and bent underneath the hand dryer to finish off her hair. When she returned to Klaus, standing in the entryway holding her bags, she had another one of those 'super crisp' moments.

The Original Hybrid. Mightiest of the mighty, indestructible and immortal. Founder of the majority of all vampires on earth (probably?). And he was holding _her_ plastic Target bags and _her_ giant Icee cup so patiently, so willingly. There was power in this. Caroline felt it.

It felt . . . good? Yeah, it felt good.

"Ready?"

"So ready," she answered him. "Baby, I was born ready."

Klaus laughed at her, and handed her the Icee. "That is patently not true. But do let's go. I can feel the smell of this place seeping into my skin, and it's very unpleasant."

"Oh, you hybrids and your super sensitive noses. Fine, we're off."

After returning to the car, Caroline used the new beach towel to mop up the water from her leather seat. "So much better. Okay," she said, flopping into her seat and buckling her seat belt. "Where to?"

"Isn't that your decision?"

"I'm not making any decisions today. Other than shopping ones, obviously. That's my current mantra- no plans, no decisions, life to be lived on the go."

"Well, unless you tell me otherwise, we're heading towards New York."

"Oh, right, so that is why you didn't buy anything at Target. You have a place there. Do you also have a family dinner at Elijah's scheduled?"

"Tomorrow night, actually. Our flight was supposed to leave in the morning. And no, that is not why I didn't buy anything at Target." He shuddered slightly.

"Well, Rebekah will just have to go without you. Should you call her?"

"Already texted her. And I asked her to let the sheriff know where you are."

"Oh, right. My mom. I'll bet her face when I walked out of that gym was priceless. That was probably a good idea, actually. And it explains why we aren't being chased by the National Guard right now. Unless we actually are, and I'm just not hearing the helicopters."

"Nary a one in the sky, love. Don't you think you should call her? Or call Tyler?"

"Well, I left my phone in my purse, and I left my purse sitting under my chair in the gym. So, I guess not."

Without taking his eyes off the road, Klaus fished his cell out of his pocket and tossed it into her lap. "There. Tyler is programmed under 'Hybrid 1'."

Caroline picked up his phone, and started to scroll through his contact list. "You didn't even list them by _name_?"

"I didn't need to learn their names right away. But I did need a way to reach each one of them."

"He doesn't carry your hybrid burner cell anymore. No more electronic leash for him. We had a nice time smashing it in his driveway one night after he broke your sire bond."

"I know. I reprogrammed it with his other number."

Caroline shook her head in disgust. "I don't even know what to say to you about this." She kept scrolling. "So many. Hybrid 12, Hybrid 13, Hybrid 14 . . . these people are all dead now. Because of you."

"Hybrid 14 is Marissa, so no. Not all of them."

"But yes, nearly all. We are going to have to do something about this. This is just unacceptable. You do know that slavery was made illegal, like, a hundred years ago, right?"

Klaus smiled. "You speak as though human laws meant something to me. I have watched kingdoms, empires even, rise and fall. New laws, old laws. It is all meaningless. This childish nation of yours was birthed after I was already ancient, Caroline."

Suddenly sobered, Caroline looked at his profile. Light was fading from the sky, and everything was becoming indistinct, hazy. "I do forget that sometimes."

"I know you do. Not going to call him?"

"No."

"Are you hungry then?"

"I could definitely eat. But nothing fast, or greasy, or pizza-ish, or divey Chinese. And that's probably all we will find off the interstate."

"Ah, I was not referring to food, Caroline."

"Oh, yeah. I could eat that, too. What did you have in mind? I assume that you don't keep all of your cars stocked with blood bags."

"We have choices. We are not far from DC, actually, and there's a club-"

"No, no, no. Not one of those disgusting icky places with disgusting icky girls."

"Then we can stop at any gas station and compel an attendant for his neck."

"Seriously? Gross."

"I could attract the attention of the highway patrol, so that one, or a pair of them, will pull us over. That is as good a blood delivery service as one can arrange. Very effective, but slightly risky."

Caroline made another face. "These are all terrible ideas."

"I don't know what you are expecting, Caroline. Did the Salvatore brothers never teach you how to _be_ a vampire out in the world properly?"

"Well, Stefan was all about the bunny hunting, and I did try that for awhile, but ugh. Fur gets in your teeth, and it's all just so impossible. Tiny veins, very tricky. And Damon's bright idea is to lay down in the middle of the road and wait for someone to run over you with their car."

"Crude. But feel free, if you like. I can easily find you a side street."

"No, thanks." Caroline sighed. "The disgusting icky club it is, I guess."

"Very well." Klaus began to change lanes, but Caroline suddenly grabbed his arm. "No, wait! There."

"This exit?"

"Yes, look! It's a carnival, you can see the lights of the Ferris Wheel."

"Excellent choice. There are good pickin's, as you might say, at a carnival. There's always one worker off alone, having a smoke." Klaus gave her a wolfish grin, and Caroline wrinkled her nose.

"No, idiot. I was thinking about the rides. And cotton candy. And funnel cake. I'm not killing a carny again. Been there, done that."

"I'm going to enjoy seeing you lit up with all of the colors of the carnival, Caroline," Klaus said, as he pulled the car over to the exit.

"And I'm going to enjoy the funnel cake."

They found the carnival easily, and parked. But upon entering the fairgrounds, Caroline sniffed. "Really, that is completely the wrong spot for a ticket booth. And I do not approve of the layout. The cheap kiddie games should be at the far end, so the parents are forced to spend extra money after they have already wasted real money on the more grown up games. I could organize a better carnival in my sleep." She grabbed Klaus's arm and tugged him to the booth, making him buy a pack of twenty tickets.

"Sustenance first, love," Klaus said, and pulled her in the opposite direction from where she was trying to go, which was straight to the Ferris Wheel.

"Right," Caroline looked around, at the people and the lights and the noisy distractions. "Her?"

Klaus looked at the woman she was indicating. She was young, and alone, and appeared to be searching for someone in particular. "Separated from her herd. Good thinking. Follow us in a few."

He dropped Caroline's arm, and moved stealthily through the crowd. He caught the young brunette by the elbow, and turned her slightly to face him. After he murmured low to her, she nodded, already in daze. Klaus glanced back at Caroline, and inclined his head towards a side alley formed by the Tilt-A-Whirl and a House of Mirrors. She looked around quickly, to make sure no one had seen Klaus and the woman go back there. No concerned spouses or boyfriends peering around suspiciously.

With a little hop, Caroline moved quickly to follow them. She was hungry. And a little excited? She might be more than a little excited.

Klaus was still holding the woman by the arm when Caroline reached them. "Ladies first," he said, pulling the woman's long hair back from her neck.

"Sorry," Caroline said to the woman, whose eyes were glassy and unfocused. "It's been a very long day, and I'm so hungry, you have no idea. And this won't hurt very much, so don't be scared."

Klaus chuckled. "Do you always apologize to your meals, Caroline?"

"Well, I don't exactly do this very often, you know." Caroline could smell the brunette's blood, and it was divine. "Hold her still."

"Of course."

She bent her mouth to the woman's neck and drank deeply. With one hand, she reached up and wrapped her fingers around the woman's long brown hair. Her fingers met Klaus's fingers, and he smoothly twined his hand around hers, so they were holding the woman together. It was intimate in a way that Caroline had not anticipated. More intimate than sex, this sharing and holding and feeding. It melted something that had been sitting hard and cold in Caroline's chest ever since that night in Tennessee.

Caroline lifted her head from the woman's neck. "Oh my God," she said, letting go of the woman's hair and wiping her mouth. "Oh, my God, that was _good_. And so warm. I had forgotten."

Klaus turned the woman around so her back was to him. He wrapped one arm over her chest, and moved her hair to the other side.

Caroline held up a hand. "Wait!"

Politely, Klaus said, without raising his head, "Yes, Caroline?"

"Um, could you maybe _not_ kill her?"

"As you wish." Klaus began to drink, and the woman's legs started to sag. Caroline watched with some trepidation as he continued.

"Not killing her, remember? As in _not._ As in, we leave her alive?"

Klaus raised his head, the veins on his face stark, his teeth sharp and bloody in the blue and red lights from the Tilt-A-Whirl. Caroline could hear the swoop and the clack of the vehicles on the tracks, as she watched his face return to normal. The woman slumped to the ground as he released her. Caroline knelt immediately by her side, and felt for a pulse.

"Whew. Cutting it close, weren't you?"

"I do have some experience you know. I can pinpoint the exact moment when one's prey crosses over from mere unconsciousness to actual death. It's a slight loosening in the muscles, just a whisper of release in the joints. I can teach you, if you like."

"Um, that's okay." Caroline vamped out, and bit her wrist. She held her slit wrist up to the brunette's mouth and forced her to drink. She was very careful not to spill a drop on the woman's shirt or skirt. The woman raised her head after a second, and sputtered. "There, now. You are going to be fine," Caroline told her.

Caroline tilted the woman's head up and looked her in the eyes. "Everything is fine, you are perfectly safe. You are having a great time at the carnival, and you are looking for your friends. You won't remember us at all. But I thank you, most sincerely. You tasted _awesome._"

The woman stood up, and stumbled away, without a backward glance at them. Klaus reached out a hand and pulled Caroline to her feet. "Better than cotton candy or funnel cake?"

"So much better. God."

After a second of tugging, Caroline realized that Klaus was not going to let go of her hand. So she rolled her eyes at him, and sighed.

He pulled her against him in a sudden motion, surprising her and setting her off balance. Klaus spun her until her back was pressed against the side wall of the House of Mirrors. She realized that she wanted this. She did. Without giving it too much thought, she raised her face to his, and they kissed. She could taste the woman on his lips, and it made want her more and more. More blood, more warmth, more of _this. _Of_ him_. It was very wrong. And she could not have stopped herself if even a thousand disapproving mothers and boyfriends and best friends had made their appearance there, under the lights of the fairgrounds.

She could feel the pressure of his hand against the back of her head, the hunger in his mouth, and it was suddenly all too much. She pulled away from him, putting a hand between them. "Does this caveman sort of thing work on your other girls?"

"I have no other girls, Caroline. There is only you."


	3. how my heart behaves

They never made it to the Ferris Wheel and they never bought any cotton candy - the roll of tickets to remain forever unused in Klaus's pocket. Instead, they went from up against the wall of the House of Mirrors, to the bed of a cheap motel nearby.

The Delight-Me Inn. It had the same slightly moldy smell as the one they stayed in when Caroline went to Tennessee on the run from the Council, and 'Tyler' had surprised her there. Caroline looked at Klaus when they checked in, to see if he noticed. She thought he had. It was pretty safe to assume that he was remembering the same things she was.

And as soon as they were there, in the room, and the door was closed, memory took a hand in the proceedings. The maxi dress on the carpet, Klaus's pants thrown over the chair in the corner. They couldn't see fireflies from the window of their room, but yes, the night was like silk, and yes, Klaus kissed the tears from Caroline's face. She was not quite sure if she cried from happiness or from something else this time. It was more, though. It was so much more than it had been before, because this was _him_, truly him.

And when it was over, she didn't know how to feel. It was all too much, it had been too much for too long, the way she had fought against this. She wasn't going to let the walls down, she couldn't.

Caroline slid out from under the sheets, and stood up, slim and pale in the moonlight coming in from the window.

"What is it, my love?"

"I'm not, though. I'm not. This isn't even about love at all," she said in a whisper, shaking her head.

"It could be. It would be so easy if you just let yourself go. Just a nudge, Caroline. Right over the edge."

"This is just - I'm high on human blood. Warm blood, that is. And the lights and the noise - and the breakdown I had earlier." Caroline took a deep breath. "Such a mistake. I'm so stupid. What am I even doing here?"

"You are on a journey with me, Caroline. It was your choice, and a very good one from my perspective," Klaus said, from the bed. She could see the way the moonlight was turning his golden hair silver against the white of the pillowcase, and it was beautiful. He was beautiful. And wicked. And this was so wrong.

Quietly, she asked, "If I wanted to go home, right now, you would take me?"

"Of course. Is that what you want?" Klaus sat up, his weight on his elbows. "I said anywhere, and I meant it. Even if it means this is over."

Caroline sat down on the edge of the bed. With one hand, she lightly traced along his bare chest, and he shivered against her touch. "So much the same as I remembered, and yet so very, very different. I was surprised, I think."

Klaus captured her hand with one of his, and he brought it up to his mouth. He kissed her fingertips and then released her hand. "For me, it is enchantment, always. Just being this close to you is like the finest champagne, dancing on my tongue."

"The things you say," Caroline sighed. "I should storm out of here, I should throw something at you, I should be yelling. And then you go and say such lovely things. Like out of a movie. One of those movies where Ryan Gosling gets to wear old timey costumes."

"I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. But it doesn't matter as long as you stay right here, with me."

"I can't." Caroline stood again. "I need your phone. I should call Tyler."

"In my pocket, on the chair."

Caroline picked up her dress and pulled it on. This wasn't the sort of phone conversation you should do naked. Then she took Klaus's phone from his pocket, and turned back towards him. "It'll just be a second. I can't imagine this being a long talk."

He nodded at her, and she took the phone with her into the tiny bathroom, with it's cracked linoleum and broken shower head dripping. She sat on the closed toilet lid and held the phone in her hand. She wasn't going to cry again, she wasn't.

She scrolled down to 'Hybrid 1' and pushed Send. It rang and rang. Of course, Tyler wasn't going to answer the phone for Klaus. Of course not. That had not occurred to her. When his voicemail picked up, she took a deep breath and said, all in a rush, "I'm sorry, Tyler. I love you. I left you. I'm not coming with you, I am not coming home anytime soon. Don't wait for me, I'm sorry." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

She came out of the bathroom, and stood just outside the door, looking at Klaus. He looked steadily back at her, his eyes shining in the dark. She laid the phone on the chair, and then pulled her dress off again. He opened his arms, and she came right into them.

"So it's done," he said, wrapping his arms around her.

"I didn't do it for you."

"I know."

"It wasn't about you at all."

"I know that. Still, it is done."

Suddenly overwhelmed, Caroline sobbed, clutching at his shoulder. "Did I have to?"

"Shhh . . . love . . . yes, you had to." He stroked her hair as she cried on his chest. He lifted her head to kiss her face, to kiss her tears, but she turned away.

"No," she said. "Leave them. Please, just leave them."

* * *

The morning dawned clear and bright. Caroline was up and showered and dressed before Klaus finally stirred from the bed.

She was humming in the bathroom, using her new straightener, when Klaus looked around the corner at her. He leaned close to kiss her shoulder, left bare by the straps of her dress, but she held up a hand. "Nope. We will _not_ be doing that. No cutsey couple stuff, that is so not what we are doing here."

Klaus ran a hand through his tousled hair. "Then what _are_ we doing here, Caroline?"

"I have no freaking clue. But it's not that. Go get dressed, we are leaving in ten minutes."

"Do you happen to think that you are in charge of every aspect of this runaway jaunt?" Klaus asked her, a hard edge in his voice.

Caroline glared at him in the mirror. "Leaving in ten minutes."

They locked eyes, and then Klaus shrugged. "At your service as always."

They were in the Audi and pulling out of the motel parking lot in nine minutes exactly.

As they passed the fairgrounds on their way to the interstate, Caroline said, "Oh, look. How sad. We must have been there on their last night, because they are already pulling everything down."

"The merriment is over," Klaus murmured. "Nothing sad in that. All things end."

"Wow, passive agressive much?"

"What would you have me do, Caroline? How would you like me to feel at this precise moment?"

"You look for rejection, Klaus. You hunt for it."

"Well, I do have a fair amount of experience in that area, sweetheart."

"God, I am not saying no, okay? I'm just not saying yes, either. To anything. Just coming off a mental breakdown here, you know. Not really in a position to be making huge decisions."

"You made one last night when you let Tyler go."

"I know. And I think that was a big enough one that you should cut me a break this freaking morning, okay?"

He glanced over at her, her profile hard and unyielding against the morning light. "Yes, Caroline. It is okay."

"Thank you. Geez." She huffed. "Sunglasses. That's totally what I forgot to buy at Target yesterday. I always get cranky when I have to squint against the sun all day in the car."

Klaus flipped open the middle container between them, and tossed a pair of sunglasses in her lap. "Here. My sister's."

"Oh, cute." Caroline put the oversized shades on. "Rebekah and I have had our differences, and I realize that is a big understatement, but I will give her credit for good taste in general."

She started humming, and Klaus glanced at her again.

"What?" she asked him.

"Nothing. The car does have a working radio, you do know."

"Fine." Caroline reached over and started channel flipping through the XM stations. "First Wave. That make you happy? I would hate to annoy you with my tunelessness."

The Clash were enthusiastically Rocking the Casbah, and Klaus winced. "I don't think so."

"Oh, for crying out loud." She flipped the station to Symphony Hall. "I'm guessing this is more your style."

"I appreciate many genres of music, Caroline. The 70s and 80s, however, were not a highlight of my existence."

"What were you up to then?"

"The 70s and 80s of this past century? On the run from my father, mostly. Until the early 90s, anyway. I didn't realize that he had only stopped chasing me because Abby Bennett had put him into a box. She didn't exactly send out a memo informing me."

"You weren't _literally _running from him, though. I mean, you must have been doing something else. Where was Elijah at that time?"

"Elijah and I stopped speaking to each other in the late 20s, when he started getting aggressive with me about undaggering my other siblings. We didn't see eye to eye on the topic."

"Well, yeah. Because you were being a selfish asshole."

Klaus gave her a sidelong glance. "I don't think you understand, Caroline."

"I can't _entirely_ understand, because I am an only child. But no, I doubt you could ever make me see just how boxing up your family and carting them around is like, anything sympathetic."

"Then I won't even attempt to explain it to you."

"Oh, I _get_ it. I'm not stupid. They can't reject you, they can't _leave _you if they aren't even conscious. I'm not saying that I don't understand _you_. But it also doesn't change the selfish asshole factor."

"You always do that," Klaus murmured. "You say the one thing that cuts to the heart of everything. You toss it off as though it means nothing, when actually, it means everything in the world."

"Hey, it's what I do. So?"

"So?"

"You were telling me what you were up to thirty or forty years ago. Did you hang out at vampire discos? Did you feed off Donna Summers or Cher or The Beach Boys or whoever?"

"I think you are mixing up your decades a bit there, love. But yes, there were vampire discos, actually. However, I was in various other parts of the world for much of that time. I was in Greece for about fifteen years, and I also spent some time in Turkey."

"Really? Why?"

"I have a villa in Greece. In Corfu. Very beautiful, you would like it there very much. I doubt you have ever seen a sea so blue."

"That's probably true. What did you do there?"

"I painted, mostly. Very good light, as you can imagine. And there is an interesting line of witches in Corfu, the Leonides sisterhood. I thought perhaps they could assist me with my little problem."

"Oh right, the whole silly hybrid dream you chased for a thousand years. Considering how that all turned out, you should totally be the one having the mental breakdown right now."

"How do you know that I'm _not_ having one?"

"Good point. I suppose you just hide it better than I do." Caroline reached over to the radio buttons again. "Boring. Let's try this." She turned it to The Joint, and relaxed into Bob Marley.

Klaus made a face, and then reached over to the buttons himself. Caroline smacked his hand. "Nuh uh. Passenger choice."

"That is not a rule, Caroline."

"Well, it is now. Okay, so what else?"

"What else?"

"You painted. You sighed over the great light and the blue, blue sea. You made googoo eyes at witches to no good effect. Was there anyone living with you? Were you lonely?"

"Yes, to both questions. I generally did have a companion. But lonely? Always."

Caroline was quiet for a second, and then she asked, "Are you lonely when you are with me?"

"Yes."

"Then I am no different, no better than your 'companions'. Your other ladyfriends from the past."

"Ah, that is certainly not true."

"Isn't it?"

"No. I am only lonely with you, Caroline, because _you _still hold yourself back from me. The day will come," Klaus said, his eyes on the road ahead. "I know the day will come when that is no longer true. And then neither of us will be lonely again."


	4. ok pal

AN: I don't know if anyone has noticed, but I'm choosing song titles for the chapter titles . . . songs that are love songs, and yet sort of aren't love songs. They exist in the same kind of ambiguous emotional landscape that Caroline does in this story at the moment.

* * *

While they were still over two hours from New York, Klaus's phone began to buzz in his pocket. He pulled it out, and smiled when he saw who was calling. "Sheriff Forbes, how lovely. Oh, yes, she is here. Yes, I realize that, of course. I hope you know that I would never- Right. So we understand each other then. Yes." Klaus glanced over at Caroline, who was bouncing in her seat and reaching out for the phone. "Actually, she wants very much to talk to you. Here we are."

Caroline snatched the phone from him. "Mom! What's up?"

"Are you kidding me with this, Caroline?" Her mother said, in exasperation. "I've been worried sick. I called everyone, and no one knew where you were, or where you went in the _middle_ of graduation. It never occurred to me that you had taken off with Klaus."

"I didn't take off with Klaus!" Caroline said, indignantly. Then, catching his eye, she amended. "Well, okay, I totally ran off with Klaus. That's a fair assessment. It just sounds weird when you say it. Sort of skanky."

"Tyler came over this morning, completely distraught, said you had left this very strange voicemail on his phone, but that you were calling from Klaus's phone - which made no sense."

"Oh, poor Tyler. Is he okay? Wait- didn't Rebekah tell you where I was? She was supposed to."

"Well, she didn't. And no, of course Tyler is not okay. The two of you should have been at the beach condo by now. How did you think he was doing?"

"I know," Caroline said, soberly. "I know, and I'm sorry."

"What has gotten into you, Caroline? This is not like you at all."

"Isn't it? I don't even know anymore, and that's the problem." Caroline lowered her voice and turned away from Klaus. "Mom, do you remember a couple of months ago, when you came into my room because I was crying, and I couldn't stop crying, and Oh, God I was so sad, and I couldn't even stop long enough to tell you why?"

"Yes, of course I remember that."

"That was the anniversary of the day I died, Mom. That's what I wasn't able to say to you. It was the day that everything ended for me. . . . but the day that everything else began, and I was crying because I knew, I knew that the ordinary girl's life that I have been living, the high school girl so busy with everything, so in charge of everything . . . none of it mattered. I've been _pretending_. Pretending to still be human, but I'm not. I am dead. A year later, and I am still dead. I think part of me always thought, oh hell, I don't know. That maybe it was a mistake. Maybe I would wake up human again someday."

"Oh, Caroline. I wish I had known it was that day."

"It's okay, I don't think I ever told you when it happened. But graduation just made everything even more clear, you know? I was there, and we were all graduating, and it was another ending. Another reminder that nothing I have done in the past four years matters. Accomplishments and all that work - what for? I can't go off to college like everyone else. I'm never going to _be_ human again. Never really going to grow up. I'm frozen and stuck like this, and this is _me_ forever. And I'm not even sure who I am when I stop pretending to be that girl, that human girl with the bright future. I have no future - definitely not the kind that can be summed up in a graduation speech."

"Oh, sweetheart. I'm sorry."

"Can you see why I just had to . . . to do something radical, to do something drastic? I had to leave that girl behind for awhile. I can't pretend to be her anymore."

Caroline could tell that Klaus was looking at her, but she kept her face turned towards the window.

"Caroline, I had no idea you were thinking about all of this. Is this why you have been refusing to decide on a school for the fall?"

"I can't live in a dorm full of humans, mom. Not a good idea. Even high school has been harder than you can imagine."

"I hadn't thought about it like that. I guess you are not the only one who has been pretending here."

"I hold it together, and I am _Caroline Forbes _all freaking day long, but it takes _effort_, Mom. And I'm tired, and I don't want to work that hard every day. I need a break. I'm sorry that I scared you, but I just need a break."

There was silence, and then her mom said, "I think I understand, Caroline. But why Klaus?"

Caroline looked over at him, to see that he was still watching her. "Seriously? Eyes on the road, buddy," she said to him. Then she turned back to the phone. "Don't read anything into it, mom. Klaus is going to New York, and he's taking me there to see Elena."

The relief in her mom's voice was apparent. "Elena is going to be there?"

"Yep."

"Oh, good. And you'll come home after that? After you spend some time with Elena?"

"Yes, mom. I will come home. I'm not running away forever."

"If anything happens, and I do mean _anything, _Damon and Stefan are on standby and ready to come and get you, wherever you are, you understand?"

Caroline rolled her eyes. "Yes, mom. You can tell them to stand down, though. Everything is fine. And if they ask, just say that I'm on an epic journey of self discovery, 'kay?"

"What do you want me to tell Tyler?"

Caroline sighed. "I don't know. Just tell him I'm sorry. We're done - for now, anyway. We've been fighting all the time, so this can't be too big of a surprise for him. It's not his fault, though. Nothing that he did. I just can't worry about him and figure out _me_ at the same time."

After exchanging 'I love yous' and hanging up, Caroline put the phone down in the center console area, and turned to Klaus. "Go ahead. I know you are dying to say something."

"I apologize for my sister. I assume she simply couldn't be bothered to inform your mother." He paused, and then said, "Going off to spend time with Elena? Is that what you are doing?"

"I don't even know if Elena is in New York. Is she?"

"She should be. She doesn't normally miss a Mikaelson family dinner. However, I haven't seen her or spoken to her since she and Damon escorted Katerina to my house last week to hand over the silver stake that Katerina rather conveniently 'found'."

"Oh, so you saw right through that, huh? Yeah, Katherine thought holding onto it was leverage, but Elena wasn't going to allow that for a second. I suppose you did something safe with it?"

"You are changing the subject. But yes, the stake is quite safe, and quite out of reach. Now let us talk about that phone call, Caroline."

"Oh, let's not," Caroline said, looking out the window again. "In fact, let's definitely not." She turned back to him. "Does it bother you to see Elena living as a member of your family? I've always wondered."

"Just because Elijah likes to play house, and pretend he has a daughter now, it doesn't mean that I have to pander to that delusion. The fact that she had his blood in her system when she turned obviously means nothing to me. Generally, we just ignore each other."

"If the whole bloodline thing was significant to you, I'd be your what? Great-great-granddaughter?" Caroline wrinkled her nose. "Ew. You dirty old man. And you had a fling with Katherine, too, didn't you? She's your great-granddaughter."

"Enough, Caroline. I do not want to discuss Elena or Katerina, or anything related to the Petrovas."

"Can we at least just agree to call her 'Katherine' from now on? Everyone time you say 'Katerina', I think of ice skating for some reason, and it's just confusing." Caroline reached over to the console and turned off the radio. "That was totally giving me a headache."

"Not surprising. It was basically just caterwauling."

"Oh, stop harshing my musical mellow. Can we talk about Tatia?"

Klaus glanced at her in surprise. "You know about Tatia?"

"Elena tells me everything, and Elijah tells her stories about Tatia all the time."

"Does he? That's very interesting."

"So who was first, you or Elijah?"

"I don't know, to be truthful. Tatia was . . . she was a child of nature. Quite wild in many ways, and I say that in it's truest sense. When the other ladies of our acquaintance were gathered around the village well to chatter about the petty gossip of the time, she was always off in the woods, talking to the birds."

"Like, literally talking to the birds? Was she a bit cuckoo?"

"In those days, we would have said she was simple. Just a very pretty girl with a simple heart, sweet as honey and so gentle. And she was also generous with her affections. Perhaps overly so. Her mother died when she was young, and her father was a drunkard. There was no one to rein her in. My mother found her to be quite shocking. Tatia cared far more for animals than she did for people, and she always had a wounded rabbit or a lame deer she was trying to heal. She ran wild in the forests and in the meadows, and we boys would try to catch her. Sometimes she would let us. I enjoyed chasing Tatia, she was the doe to my wolf. That's how I always thought of her, as a shy doe."

"It doesn't sound like you were actually in love with her," Caroline observed.

"It doesn't? Well, I certainly thought I was. However, I have always suspected that my brother stood first in her affections, and perhaps that had influence over how much I wanted her for myself."

"Perhaps. That would make sense. And it doesn't freak you out whenever you see Elena or Katherine? Elena says it sometimes makes Elijah a little sad to look at her."

"Neither Elena nor Katherine remind me of Tatia at all. They are all so different." He glanced at her again. "And I never had a fling with Katherine, you know. Yes, I bedded her, naturally. But I always found her tiresome. Demanding, selfish and childish."

"Do you realize that you just described yourself?"

"Pardon me?"

"Well, let's think about that. Obviously, I don't find you tiresome, or I wouldn't be sitting here now. But demanding? Um, absolutely. Selfish? Yep. And childish? Sometimes, definitely."

"If that is how you see me, then I am surprised that you turned up on my doorstep."

"Oh, don't get huffy with me. I am just stating fact. And I don't even know why I turned up on your doorstep yesterday. Maybe I'm just an optimist, you know? Despite the fact that you are demanding, selfish and childish . . . I don't know. I guess I think there's hope for you."

"I happen to think there's another reason why you walked seven miles in the rain, Caroline. You simply couldn't stay away."

"God, don't flatter yourself." Caroline looked out of her window, noticing a sign listing exits for New York. "Are we starting to get close?"

"We still have a little ways to go."

"Would you have taken me to New York even if you hadn't been planning a trip there anyway?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"There is a postcard in your room. It's the only one you have bothered having framed, and it's of the Brooklyn Bridge."

"My dad sent it to me when he and Steven were in New York a couple of years ago. Steven has family there, so they used to go all the time. They travelled a lot, anyway."

"Did your father send you many postcards from their travels?"

"Yeah, lots and lots."

"But you only framed this one."

"So? I wouldn't read too much into that. It doesn't mean I am harboring a secret desire to run off to New York and become a Broadway star or something."

"Of course not. But it's of a bridge, Caroline," There was a patient tone in his voice. "A bridge. And what do you think we are doing? What could this trip signify for you, for us?"

"Oh."

"New York is a city of bridges, Caroline. That is why I am taking you there."

* * *

Klaus's phone buzzed again, and Caroline glanced down at in. "Huh. It's Damon."

"It's probably for you."

Caroline answered the call. "Hey there, Mayor Salvatore."

"Is he compelling you?"

"What?"

"Klaus," Damon said, impatiently. "Did he get you off the vervain somehow?"

"No, Damon. God, what is wrong with everybody? We decided to go on a roadtrip. We are only like, six hours from home. It's not this giant, earth shattering huge deal. You need to chill."

"Your mother was freaking the fuck out, Caroline. And when your mom freaks out, she makes everyone else freak out. She carries a gun - and an unstable woman with a gun makes people nervous around Town Hall."

"Well, we are all cool now, okay?"

"Good to know." There was a pause, and then Damon asked, "Speaking of Town Hall, are you going to be at work on Monday?"

"Oh, God," Caroline said. "I totally forgot. The internship in your office."

"Yeah, that thing, you know? The thing you nagged me to death about and made me get for you, even though half the town's civil servants know that you are a vampire, and were not comfortable about it? It took me two hours of sucking on butterscotch candies in his hideous mint green living room to convince Wilber Fell not to put the kibosh on the whole fucking thing. The _internship.__"_

"Well-" Caroline began, but Damon cut her off.

"I even delayed your start date, so you could go to the beach with Tyler. You wanted this, Caroline."

"I know, I did."

"And now you don't? Seriously?"

"I don't know if I will be back on Monday. Hold it for me, 'kay?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake. I've got Tyler Lockwood drinking my good bourbon and crying in the Playstation room, _Matt Fucking Donovan_ loading up a rifle to take down Klaus as though he was hunting for bear, and Stefan pacing in front of the fireplace for the past several hours muttering to himself about how we never should have given up the damn stake. And you're off gallivanting like 'la di dah di dah, hey Klaus, let's go tiptoeing through the fucking tulips'. "

"Aww. You guys really care about me. That's kind of sweet."

"Yeah, sweet," Damon grumbled. "Maybe Elena can talk some sense into you. I already let her know you are on your way."

"Oh. Well, that's good I guess. Later, 'kay?"

Damon sighed. "Just come the fuck home when you're done doing whatever, all right?"

"All right, Damon."

Caroline put the phone back down after she had ended the call, and she turned back towards the window again. The greenery of the past several miles was giving way to concrete at a rapid pace. She had become accustomed to the swiftness and surety of Klaus's driving. She wondered if he would drive this fast through the streets of Manhattan once they reached there. Surely, he wouldn't be able to.

"You were planning on working for Damon this summer?"

"Yeah. It seemed like a good idea. I enjoyed being on his campaign, even if it was unofficial. We make a pretty good team. We beat your ass after all."

"No. It's ridiculous."

"Why?"

"You are better than him. Smarter. It makes no sense for you to work as his lackey."

"You think I'm smarter than Damon?"

"Obviously. But that is not setting the bar very high."

"Oh, you are just bitter that he won the election and you didn't, even though you tried to cheat."

"I didn't care for being outmaneuvered by a Salvatore, that is true. Not that I actually wanted to be mayor, though."

"I wondered about that. It seemed weird. Why did you bother?"

Klaus shrugged. "My line of hybrids had practically come to an end, after a thousand years of planning and dreaming. The stake was missing. And I was angry with everyone. I was angry with you. You shut me out completely after our night in Tennessee. I knew running for mayor was a move that would shake everyone up."

"God, are you _kidding_ me? Of course, I shut you out! That was like, the most dickish thing ever."

"It didn't matter whose body I was in, Caroline. We shared true intimacy that night, and you know it. And you acted as though it had never happened, you blocked me at every turn. You are still blocking me."

"Not exactly the kind of thing a girl gets over in a hurry," Caroline said, with a snort. "True intimacy. Yeah, right. You wouldn't know what that was if it smacked you in the face. You can't steal somebody's body and _pretend_ to be that person, and then think anything honest and _true_ is happening."

Klaus was silent.

Caroline asked, with a small sigh, "Are we pouting now?"

"It was the closest I had come in a very long time, Caroline. Don't belittle that moment for me."

"Do you want me to feel sorry for you?" Caroline looked at him in disbelief.

"Maybe we shouldn't talk about this."

"Damn right, we shouldn't." Caroline slipped her flip flops off, and put her bare feet on the dashboard. She flexed her toes in the sunlight. "God, that feels good. Can you turn the radio back on? I can't reach it in this position. Nothing with so many violins this time."

"And you have the gall to call me 'demanding'." Klaus said, as he turned the XM to dial to The 40s on 4.

"Benny Goodman?" Caroline turned to him. "Seriously?"

Klaus glanced at her, and then at her feet.

"What? Is this a problem? Am I messing up the rosewood veneer with my toes? Does this offend you in some way?"

"No."

"Then stop staring at them. God."

"Your feet are perfection."

"Um, what?"

"Your feet. Here," Klaus beckoned to her, and she obligingly slid her feet into his lap. Keeping his eyes on the road, Klaus took one of her feet in his hands. His fingers stroked the underside of the arch of her foot, and she couldn't keep herself from shivering slightly. "Ticklish?"

"Um, no. Not at all."

"Your feet are perfectly proportioned. The arch in relation to the width, the toes the right length, the sweet curve of your heel. Nymph with a Shell."

"Nymph with a what?"

"A Shell. It's a statue on the ground floor of the Louvre. Although," he said, still stroking her foot, "your feet are actually more beautiful than hers, I think. Less muscular, more delicate. There was a bronze that came up for auction at Sotheby's last year, that would have been even more apt. I'm sorry now that I didn't bid on it."

"Oh. I don't even know what to say to that."

"I'd like to paint them someday. I could do them in marble, I suppose, and that would suit them best. But it's not a medium I am terribly proficient in. I'd be willing to learn, however, if it meant doing your feet justice."

"Oh, by all means. We should do my feet justice." Caroline laughed, and then flexed her toes again in his hand. "But you have to agree to paint the toenails this same color. It's 'Play Date' by Essie in case you are wondering."


	5. shell games

AN: I used to live in New York, but I have not been back there in a few years - so hopefully I have not made any glaring errors. Never lived on Park Avenue! I'm terribly jealous of the Mikaelson family.

* * *

"And there it is, in all it's splendor across the water. New York in the sunlight."

"How can you tell? I can't see any of it from this angle," Caroline complained, her nose practically pressed against the glass of her window.

"Hmmm. This time of day, we should probably take the Holland Tunnel."

"What? No tunnels. You promised me bridges, remember? I'm supposed to be drowning in the symbolism of bridges by now. A tunnel is not symbolic. A tunnel is just a long hole."

Klaus looked over at her, amused. "Fine. If you don't mind spending a little more time in this car, then I can bring you to Manhattan through Staten Island. We'll go over the Goethals, through Staten Island, over the Verrazano, through Brooklyn, and then finally, perhaps, over the Williamsburg Bridge. You will drown in bridges galore. And it might take us a couple of hours, depending on traffic."

"Um, wow. That sounds like a lot of trouble. Maybe we should just try that tunnel thingy you mentioned the first time."

"Yes, that's what I thought. Staten Island would have been interesting to see again, though. I haven't been there in a couple of centuries. Elijah used to own it."

"Elijah owned a whole island?"

"Elijah owns several islands currently. But yes, he owned that one, briefly, in the early 1670s, I believe. Elijah has always made a hobby of real estate. I never really saw the appeal, to be honest. Houses are just a place to store one's beautiful things. I have no interest in land itself." Klaus changed lanes, and then took an exit ramp into Elizabeth.

"Gas, again?" Caroline asked. "I feel like we just stopped for gas an hour or so ago."

"We did. But you never want to head onto a bridge or into a tunnel here without topping off first. I was once on the George Washington Bridge for four hours when a semi caught fire and they closed all the lanes. It would have been longer, but I compelled seven police officers and a fire brigade to move their vehicles so I could go through. I was quite happy to have filled up beforehand."

"Well, well. You are full of good tips. Remind me again about all of this stuff if I ever fulfill my life-long dream of getting a job as a cabbie here. Wait, what are you doing? Or rather, what are you not doing?"

They had parked by a gas pump, and Klaus was rolling down the window to talk to the attendant. "Please fill her up. Thank you." Without turning his head, he said to her, "It's New Jersey, Caroline. There are no self serve pumps in New Jersey."

"Wow. That's like . . . that's like _awesome._"

"Somehow, I am not surprised that you don't like to pump your own gas."

"Nope. So hard on your shoes."

He rolled the window back up, and then turned towards her. "Well, love. We are here, more or less. Any regrets? Would you like to turn around and head home again?"

"That all depends on whether or not you are going to ask me to attend the world's most ridiculous family dinner with you."

Klaus leaned over and took the sunglasses off from Caroline's face. "Not being able to see your eyes has been driving me mad. I would like you to come to dinner, Caroline. If you don't mind."

Caroline felt caught in his direct gaze. He was far too close. The sun lighting up his hair like a halo, edging the the scruff along his jawline with pure gold. "I do mind. But I will come anyway."

"Thank you."

There was hesitation, as though neither of them was quite sure what to do with this excessive proximity. It had only been a few hours after all, since they had been tangled in sheets together, lips locked in desperation, every kiss unending. He raised a hand to her face, and then dropped it without touching her. So Caroline put her own hand on the back of his head, and brought him in closer. Before she kissed him, she said, in a whisper, "Don't read anything into this. I just like kissing you. A lot."

"That is entirely acceptable, Caroline."

It was far too brief, however. The attendant knocked on the window, and they broke apart. Klaus cleared his throat, looking at her for a second. And then he turned and rolled the window down again, to hand the attendant a credit card and sign a receipt. The transaction completed, Klaus took them back up to the interstate.

"It's going to be a very interesting dinner, actually," Klaus remarked, breaking the silence, as he merged them into traffic. "Rebekah has not yet forgiven Elena for burying her in the lake last week. I believe this is the first time they will be seeing each other since then."

"Oh, goody," Caroline said. "Maybe it'll be a fun night after all."

* * *

The Holland Tunnel had been so gray and dreary that Caroline had regretted not choosing the more-bridges option. And she had sneaky suspicion there were lots of other more picturesque ways to get into Manhattan, too, but that Klaus had chosen the most expedient. But no matter, because as soon as they came out of the tunnel and she got to see the towering buildings and the crush of interesting people for herself, she was too distracted to even think about bridges anymore.

"Actual yellow cabs. I mean, they really do paint the taxis yellow."

"Yes, New York is like a television cliche, twenty four seven," Klaus answered her, absently, as he wove the Audi in and out of what looked like terribly dangerous spots of traffic congestion to Caroline.

Park Avenue, however, was somewhat less congested than lower Manhattan had been, and Caroline felt like she could finally exhale the breath she had been holding for several blocks. "Seriously? I thought you were going to kill that bike messenger."

"If it hadn't been broad daylight, maybe I would have, just on principal. I should have, actually. I am famished."

"No kidding, me too. I suppose your place is stocked up?"

"Yes, it usually is. Unless Elena has been stealing from my flat again. She is very hungry, all the time."

"I know! Damon was just complaining about that last week. She ate up all his favorite type in two days."

"We have a few hours before dinner starts. But we should say hello to Elijah and Elena at least, once we arrive. Ah, here we are now, actually."

Klaus made a quick turn, and Caroline took a sharp breath. But he was just driving them down a ramp that went under a building, and into an underground parking garage.

"Oh, so that's how people park in New York. I did wonder. It didn't seem like there was enough room on the streets."

Klaus shot her a look. "No, Caroline. Most buildings don't have one of these. But this is a vampire building. It's kind of necessary."

He pulled the Audi into a parking spot underneath a brass sign that clearly read: NIKLAUS MIKAELSON. It was right next to three spots labeled with Elijah's name, and a spot each for Kol, Rebekah and Elena. All of the Mikaelson spots were full. It was a surprise for Caroline to see 'ELENA MIKAELSON' engraved in fancy font on a brass sign on a wall in a garage on Park Avenue. It was a reminder of just how much her friend's life had changed in the past few months.

"The family is all here, I see," Klaus remarked. "Including dearest Elena. So you need not worry that you lied to your mother."

"Well, that's good, I guess." There was a flutter in her stomach, and Caroline suddenly realized that she was nervous. "Okay, can we just pause here a second?"

"Of course." Klaus looked over at her. "Is there something wrong?"

"Wrong? No," Caroline said, shaking her head. "Not wrong, it's just - oh, God, I don't know. Yes, there is something wrong. Not sure I'm up to walking into a dining room full of your family. Your ancient vampire family. Kind of freaking me out. Oh, and Elena. I don't think Elena is going to understand this, not at all. You killed her Aunt Jenna. God, you killed _her. _You killed Elena, my best friend. You killed her on a rock by the quarry, for a stupidly selfish reason, and I am not okay with that. And I'm walking in with you, and it's like we are a couple, and we are making some kind of statement - and I'm not ready. I'm just not."

Klaus suddenly looked very weary. "I don't know what to tell you, Caroline. None of that is untrue. If you would like to just go, you can. Take the car and go. Anywhere. I won't follow you, I won't make this difficult for you. But you need to make up your mind."

"Am I being unfair?" Caroline asked, her eyes filling with tears. "I'm remembering how scared we have all been of you. For so long, you were the villain in the play that is our lives, Klaus. _You _are the bad guy_. _It's like I keep forgetting that. And me? I'm on the good side, always. I mean, I might just be the sidekick, the comic relief, the one who never gets to be the heroine of the story- but I am also never going to be the one twirling my mustache while tying down maidens to train tracks. But that's you. That's totally something you would do."**  
**

"And yet you came here with me. Your choice."

"Oh, God. You stuck me in a cellar, and you were going to sacrifice me on that same rock. Katherine made me a vampire for that very reason. _You_ are why I am now a monster, why I can never live a human life. Jenna only died because I didn't." Caroline took a shuddering breath. "I can't process this. I can't process the way that I feel when you are near me, the way I can't stop _wanting_ you, despite knowing all of these things. It's like my brain is always telling me two things at once, and I just can't deal."

His eyes dropped to his hands, as they clenched around the steering wheel. "Forgive me. Please."

Caroline was silent. She could hear the noises of the city outside of the parking garage. Car horns, a siren. The squeal of someone's brakes as they avoided hitting a pedestrian. There was a life out there, ongoing and messy. Everyone's life was messy, nothing was ever perfectly clear - even for humans.

And for those who weren't . . . they were all killers. Almost everyone she knew was a killer. She was about to walk into a dining room full of killers. If you collected the victims of every Mikaelson, every Salvatore - and yes, even of her, Caroline Forbes - in a pile, they could probably blanket Manhattan. Cover every square inch with bodies. It wasn't a pretty thought, but it was a true one. And if you tried to tally up the scores like some arbiter of morality, you would only go crazy. So maybe it was time to let judgement go. Maybe it was all part of figuring out what her vampire future was going to be. She wasn't human anymore, she needed to remember that. And there was eternity stretching before her, and it suddenly looked very cold and very empty.

Or she could choose to forgive, and that could change everything.

Caroline said, in a whisper, "You've never asked me for forgiveness before. That's something I can build on, I think. An opportunity of some kind. I hope so, anyway."

Klaus lifted his head, to meet her eyes again. "Do you actually want to?"

"I do," she said, wiping a tear from her cheek. She choked back a laugh. "God help me, but I think I do."


	6. sea legs

Caroline couldn't find the right word to describe Klaus's apartment in Elijah's building. She was expecting opulence, but what she saw was - 'storage unit-y'?

"Wow, when you said a house is just a place to store stuff, you weren't kidding," she said, as she tried to navigate through the boxes in a narrow hallway. The hallway opened up into a living room with enough windows that it should have been quite sunny. But boxes and stacked canvases and bits of sculpture blocked the light at every turn. "Do you even have furniture in here?"

Klaus shrugged, as he set her overnight bag on top of a box in the hall. He had been subdued and quiet ever since the parking garage. "There is a couch in that corner behind the late Renaissance altarpiece. I don't live here, you know. It's a useful address to have for tax purposes, and as a place to have items delivered. There was an auction last month at Christie's." He looked around, and then added, "Two auctions, actually. I may have gone a bit overboard."

"Ya think? But I totally get it. When I'm bored and cranky, I get way spendy, too."

Klaus disappeared behind some boxes in what Caroline assumed was a kitchen area. He reappeared to toss her a blood bag. "I apologize for not being able to reach any glassware at the moment. There was a Jasper Johns in the way."

"What's some guy named Jasper doing in your kitchen?" At his raised eyebrow, Caroline added, "Just kidding! Geez. Trying to lighten the mood around here. Just because we had a major emotional breakthrough in the parking garage, it doesn't mean we have to be all serious. Our day doesn't have to get ruined every time we take a step forward in our relationship."

Another eyebrow went up. "Is that what we have? Is that what you have finally decided upon?"

Caroline tilted her head, as she slurped down her blood bag. She emptied it fairly quickly, and set the empty bag down on the nearest box. "Whew. Needed that super bad. Um, yeah. I thought that was obvious. I mean, God only knows that I can't stop having sex with you. That's pretty much impossible. So a relationship it is, I guess. But it's going to take some work, of course. Like, _a lot_ of work. Mostly on your part, because seriously? You are so not boyfriend material yet. But there's potential. I definitely see potential."

"I am not a fixer upper, Caroline," Klaus said, amused.

"No offense, but you so are. But that's okay. I like a really complicated project. It just might take me awhile to come up with the right way to approach this one."

"You are being Caroline Forbes again, love. I thought you were going to take a break, remember? Not make any major decisions?"

"Whatever. I'm changeable. And this isn't a major decision, really. I mean, come on, we've been moving towards this for awhile."

"I'm well aware of that. I just didn't think that you were."

"Well, epiphanies are funny that way. It's all 'boom goes the dynamite' and then everything looks different to you. And honestly? Trying to _not _be in a relationship with you was way more work than just giving in to it. It was exhausting. So in that sense, I've chosen the lazy way."

"Aweigh the anchors and full steam ahead, then?" Klaus asked, with a wry smile. "I'm not complaining, I'm just looking for clarification. You've been standing me on my head for the past twenty four hours, and I would very much like to be the right way 'round again."

"Oh, my poor dear lambikins," Caroline said, stepping closer to him. He took another step closer to her as well.

"Not the lamb, my love. I think you know that very well by now." He took another step closer, and Caroline's breath caught in her throat when she saw the gleam in his eyes. There was trouble for her in his eyes. There was trouble, there was heat, and he was coming very close.

"Um, aren't you hungry? You didn't have anything."

Klaus kept closing the gap between them, until Caroline was caught between him and the box behind her. "Yes, very hungry."

His mouth captured hers with a sound very much like a growl. This was the alpha right here, this was Klaus the wolf. This was worth everything. This was the reason she couldn't stay away from him. Caroline melted against him in surrender, only raising her head away long enough to ask, "Do we have time? Will we be late for dinner?"

"Fuck dinner," Klaus said, with another growl that sent a shiver down her spine and right to her toes.

"Okay," Caroline said. "Fuck dinner."

* * *

Caroline had never had sex on a nest of boxes and fine art before. There was one dangerous moment as a bronze centurion's helmet knocked into a T'ang Dynasty ceramic horse when Klaus tried to prop one of Caroline's legs on his shoulder, and her foot kicked it. But they mostly emerged unscathed to discover that, despite their best efforts, they weren't late for dinner after all.

They still had nearly an hour, and Caroline decided that the hour would be clothing optional. So she and Klaus had a blood bag picnic and a bottle of Romanee-Conti on the living room floor, while Klaus opened up the boxes he was most excited about. Which naturally led him to give her an impromptu course on Greek bronzes. Being taught art history by a hot naked guy was a little distracting, but Caroline was not about to complain.

"I don't know much about art but-" Caroline began.

Klaus held up a hand. "Caroline, I swear that if the next words out of your mouth are 'I know what I like', this relationship, or whatever you are labeling it today, is over."

Caroline laughed. "No, I don't even know what I like, to be honest. You've seen Mystic Falls High. The extent of my art education has been Tyler showing me his sketchbook of sexy super heroes."

At Tyler's name, Klaus made an inarticulate sound. Caroline rolled her eyes at him. "Please. Don't get territorial. That's the least thing we need once we return home."

"Did he ever draw you?" Klaus asked, in a low voice.

"Nope. Never even asked me."

"Good. I want to be first and only." Klaus starting to sifting through the boxes and packages. "There something here I very much wanted to show you . . . . it's the whole reason why I had been anticipating this particular auction for so long. Ah, here it is."

He pulled a slim box out from the general pile, and began to open it.

"That one doesn't have the Christie's stamp on it," Caroline observed.

"Ah, no. I wasn't precisely the highest bidder for this piece. I had to have it retrieved later from the person who was the high bidder."

"When you say 'retrieved'," Caroline started to ask, but at the look on his face, she stopped. "Never mind. I don't want to know."

"I have people who help me acquire art. It's best not to look too closely into their methods."

"Right."

Klaus slid a kneeling bronze figure about ten inches tall from the box. "Lovely," he said, turning it in what remained of the light coming through the gaps in the boxes from the window. "Utterly perfect."

Caroline came over to him to take a closer look at the small statue. "She's pretty. What is she doing?"

"Playing dice. You can just make out the dice by her knee here, and there is some in her hand as well. Now this is true antiquity," he said, looking at Caroline with a boyish grin. "I do love finding things that are older than myself."

"Well, you didn't exactly _find_ it, you big stealer." Caroline touched the arch of the cool bronze neck. "She's me."

"She looks nothing like you. The hips, the breasts . . . all quite different."

"Oh, I know. But she's playing a game of chance, and I feel like that's what I'm doing. Here with you."

"You are determined to find your symbolism everywhere on this journey, aren't you?"

"Maybe so."

"Then there should be something else in this box you will appreciate." Klaus turned the box over, and small bronze ring fell out. "Yes. I was hoping he had managed to acquire that as well." He picked the ring up from the floor, and handed it to her. She turned it this way and that way, trying to decipher the image on the center disk. The bronze was completely blackened with age, so it was very tricky.

"Okay, I give up. What is it?"

"It's a Roman seal depicting the goddess Vesta from the first century. Not terribly valuable, but I wanted it anyway. We will have it sized down for your finger. It's far too big as it is."

"With all of the pretty sparklies that I assume you have in a vault somewhere, this dirty old black thing is what you want me to wear?"

"Yes, please. I can easily picture you as Vesta, actually. She was always my favorite. The goddess of the hearth, home and family. There's your symbolism."

Caroline slid it onto the middle finger on her right hand. "You're right. Way too big. Maybe you have something, oh, I don't know, from Marie Antoinette or Queen Victoria, that would fit me better?"

Klaus laughed. "Very well, Caroline. I won't make you wear a rusty old Roman piece. I can find something else for you. But that one is yours, anyway." He picked up the kneeling bronze and placed that in her hand as well. "And so is this. So you will remember this game of chance always."

Caroline held the girl in her hands, feeling the weight and the heft of her, the smoothness of the bronze. She looked around the apartment in the waning light, all of the things stacked high. Beautiful things. "Is this what I am, too?"

"I don't understand."

"Are you trying to collect me, like you do all of this stuff? Do you just want to own me?"

"You can't be owned, Caroline. If you could be, you would not fascinate me so much."

"Oh. That's a really excellent answer."

* * *

Naked art history class? A great idea. But unfortunately it led to other things, and those other things led to actually being late to dinner after all.

"Oh God, you need to just hurry the hell up already," Caroline said, watching as Klaus finished pulling a clean shirt over his head. "How in the world did I manage to get ready before you?"

"If I recall correctly, I was distracted by watching _you_ get dressed. You shouldn't do it so gracefully, love. It's not fair to a man."

"Ha!" Caroline snorted. "Yeah, I was real graceful. Had my head caught in the halter top of this dress for like, three minutes before you bothered to help me."

"It was amusing me." Klaus ran a hand through his hair, and said, "There. We can go. They aren't going to start without us, you know."

"Yeah, well. I can't say I'm not still nervous, 'kay? So you'll have to excuse the butterflies and the flibbertigibbets."

"The what?"

"Oh, just something Granny Forbes used to say." Caroline took him by the arm, and started dragging him to the door. "Will the food be good?"

"Probably not. It's Elena's turn to choose what we have for dinner."

"I'm sure I'll like it then."

"Probably so."

Caroline couldn't help herself from staring at him when they stood on either side of the elevator. Klaus opened a keypad on the wall and put in a code to allow them access to the penthouse. He looked good. There was absolutely no doubt that he cleaned up well. And he smelled good, too. And this was a very nice, very sturdy elevator. Elevator sex. Hmmm. Something she had thought about, but Mystic Falls being the kind of short building town that it was, she had never had the chance. But just as soon as she was about to make a move, the elevator stopped and the doors opened.

And Kol stepped on.

"Brother," Klaus said, giving Kol a nod.

"Oh, brother," Kol said, giving Caroline an appreciative look. "Yes, indeed."

The smirk on his face was the size of a small planet.

"Yes, indeed," Kol repeated, looking to Klaus for a reaction, but Klaus only smiled blandly.

"It's Caroline Forbes, by the way," Caroline said, with a tilt to her chin. "Since you weren't bothering to ask."

"Oh, darling, I do know who you are. And I am most sincerely impressed. We've met before, you know."

"Uh huh. Not formally, though. You only leered at me from across a ballroom one night, and then leered at me again from across the Grill the next night."

"Well, if it's a formal introduction you want, then I am Kol." He glanced over at Klaus, who was still only looking mildly amused. "I'm the more dashing and romantic brother. I'm the brother that all of the ladies leave Niklaus for." He made a motion as though he was tipping a hat at her.

Caroline snorted. "Oh, my. I'm guessing that works on like, nobody at all."

Klaus laughed, as the elevator came to a stop on the top floor with a small ding. When the doors opened, he put a hand on the small of her back and guided her out. Just the touch of his fingers through the fabric of her dress made Caroline shiver. He was always making her shiver. The man had magic in his fingers, and it shouldn't be allowed.

"Showtime," Klaus murmured in her ear. "You ready for this, love?"

"Okay, the whole whispering in my ear thing?" Caroline hissed at him over her shoulder. "Not really helping with the shivers and the butterflies, and oh God, why don't we just go back to your place and you can explain to me again why you favor kore statuary that wear the Ionic chiton? I think I got lost somewhere in the difference between the chiton and the peplos, so we should totally go over all of it again. Like now."

Klaus chuckled softly in her ear, which only sent the goosebumps running up and down again. "You are the Queen of Manhattan tonight, Caroline. Always a queen, wherever you are."

Kol had already gone ahead of them into the penthouse, and he left the door standing wide open. Elena was passing the entrance with a take out bag in her hand, and she stopped when she spotted Caroline and Klaus.

"Care, you are here." Elena and Caroline both came to each other in a hug, although Elena was quick to keep Caroline from crushing the bag she was holding. "Not the spring rolls, if you please. They are Elijah's favorite."

"We're having Chinese takeout? So not what I was expecting."

"Thai, actually."

Klaus cleared his throat.

Elena glared at him. "Yes, Thai again." She turned back to Caroline and said, "There's this awesome place on 85th and Madison that delivers. Obviously, the delivery person can't come inside the building or they would get eaten, but Carlos meets them outside. I might be sort of addicted to their pad thai. Klaus, however, would probably prefer that we, what - have the chef from Les Halles compelled to cater for us again?"

Klaus shrugged. "Their confit de canard is incredible, and you know it."

Caroline linked arms with Elena, and went into the penthouse with her. "If you like Thai, then I'm sure I am going to like Thai. Whatever it actually is."

Elena pulled Caroline into a dining room that was dominated by a huge mahogany table. It was already littered with take out bags and containers.

"Wow, I'm a little shocked that there isn't any fancy china, gold rimmed glasses and snooty finger bowls and stuff," Caroline said to Elena.

"Not on my night. I make everyone eat out of Styrofoam containers with plastic utensils because I think it's funny to watch them," Elena responded. "Trust me, you have to get your jollies where you can with this crew. Okay, you will love the Thai iced tea. When I heard you were coming, I ordered like, a gallon of it because I knew it would definitely be your thing."

"Aww, that's so sweet. I love the way you take care of me."

"Speaking of, after dinner you are coming to my place for some girl talk, right? Don't say no, because I'll just get upset."

"Yikes, bad things happen when you get upset. You ruin people's proms and bury their prom co-planners in lakes. Yes, we can talk. I know we need to."

Elena's eyes went to Klaus, who had just entered the dining room. "That's an understatement."

Klaus beckoned to Caroline, and pulled a chair out. "Here, love."

Elena said, in a loud whisper, "You should sit next to me. Klaus doesn't even like Thai. I can tell what you should eat."

Caroline stood stock still, and hesitated. Her dilemma was solved, however, when Elijah entered and went to the head of the table. "Ah, Caroline. Lovely to see you. Please, come and sit at my right hand. The seat reserved for our most honored guests."

"Whew," Caroline said, as she made her way to Elijah's end of the table and sat in the seat he had pulled out for her. "You are a classy guy, and an even classier problem solver."

Kol ambled in, with Rebekah right behind him. Rebekah made a sour face when she saw Caroline, but she said nothing.

After everyone else was seated, Elena passed around the containers of food and plastic forks and spoons. "Drunken noodles for Kol, and pineapple fried rice for you, Caroline, and yep. I think that's everyone," Elena said, and then went back to her seat and sat down.

Rebekah cleared her throat. "You forgot me. My green curry? My Tom kha gai?"

Elena looked around the table. "Yep, that was everyone. Didn't forget anything. Nothing important anyway."

"Seriously, Elena? We are still being childish?" Rebekah stood up and fetched her own containers and silverware, while shooting dagger glances at Elena.

"Seriously, Rebekah? You still haven't apologized for _killing_ me?"

"You guys live like family, and yet, you've never said you were sorry for killing her?" Caroline asked, in amazement. "Poor Elena."

"Oh yes, poor Elena. Let's all feel very sorry for poor Elena. Poor Elena, whom everyone loves, whom everyone bends over backwards for, whom everyone forgives for being a massively inconvenient pain in the-"

"Enough, Rebekah," Elijah said, cutting in. "Elena, that was beneath you, don't you think?"

"Hmmm. Maybe? A little?" Elena responded. At his stern look, she shrugged. "Fine. I'm sorry."

Kol said to Caroline, with a smirk. "They are always like this. Well, not at first, because our dear niece Elena was meek as a mouse for the first month or so. But it's been fireworks between these two ever since Elena found her balls. I think Damon Salvatore was keeping them for her. Of course, it's Damon's balls that are causing the trouble now - and Rebekah's fondness for them."

Elena and Rebekah both turned to glare at Kol.

"I will dagger you, Kol, so help me," Elena said, at the same time that Rebekah also said, "Really, brother. So crass."

"There we go," Klaus interjected. "Find your common enemy, girls, and that will bring you together as sisters. Kol makes for a remarkably good common enemy."

"It could just as easily be you, brother," Kol said to Klaus. "You aren't going to be able to keep this pretty thing sweet on you for long, she has too sharp a tongue. And when she turns on you, the other ladies here will follow her lead."

Klaus narrowed his eyes, and opened his mouth, but Caroline jumped in before he could say anything. "You are like, the one guy in the family that everyone just wishes had stayed in his damn box, aren't you? There's always that one complete douchebag. Oh, and I'm not a 'thing' and my sharp tongue could flay you alive. So shut it."

Klaus looked down at his container of pad see ew and smiled, and when Caroline looked over at Elijah, he gave her a small wink.

Elijah addressed the whole family as he said, "Now that we have broken the ice, as it were, shall we eat and talk of more pleasant matters?" He turned to Caroline on his right, and asked, "Did the two of you have a nice drive up from Virginia?"

"Um, yes? It was very nice. We stopped at a carnival in - wait, what was the town called? I think we were still in Maryland," Caroline said to Klaus.

"I don't remember, love. Something like 'Possum Fry Bayou' or whatever."

"It was not. It was not called that. I mean, we didn't see much of the town, but the carnival was nice."

"The motel was lovely," Klaus remarked. "Wood paneling and green carpet and all."

"No, the carpet was gray. You are thinking of the place we stayed at in Tennessee a few months ago . . ." Caroline trailed off when she realized just how interested her audience around the table was at that reveal. "Um, anyway, I enjoyed the drive. And I'm hoping to see more of New York while I'm here."

"We shall go out upon the town tonight. I will show you everything. I will lay the city at your feet," Klaus said, sending her a warm glance.

Caroline felt her cheeks turn a bit pink. She took a few bites of her fried rice, which was actually very good, and looked anywhere but at him. She was not going to jump him in the middle of dinner. She was not. Even though he was still looking at her like _that._

"I doubt you can show her everything," Elena said. "Not in one night."

"Then we will stay longer."

"Oh, crap, I forgot the tea. Caroline, can you help me?" Elena inclined her head towards the door.

"Okay." Caroline stood and followed Elena out of the room. It was a longish trek to the kitchen.

"Wow, this place is amazing. It's huge. And gorgeous."

"The whole floor, obviously. And Elijah has good taste." Elena grabbed Caroline by the arm as they entered the kitchen. Elena carefully shut the kitchen door with her other hand. "So, what the hell, Care? I knew you were coming up with Klaus, but you guys are like, what - sleeping together now? What happened with you and Tyler?"

Caroline shrugged. She couldn't quite meet Elena's eyes. "Over. Done. Kaput."

"And _this?_ This is happening? For real?"

"Yeah," Caroline said. "Yes, it's happening. For real. Are you going to be okay with it? Because I would really like for you to be."

Elena took a deep breath. "I'm in no position to judge anyone for anything. Except Rebekah, because she's just so fun to rile up that I'm not sure I ever want to forgive her. But not you, Care. And I certainly can't judge anyone's romantic decisions. I'm involved with my ex's brother after all."

"Oh, and he's kind of my ex, too, although in a weird and twisted way - so maybe we should never really mention that again."

"Right, good point. Damon was an ass to you, and I don't think he ever really apologized."

"And same here. Klaus was, well, 'ass' isn't the right word for what he has done to you. 'Villainous', maybe. 'Evil' is better. He was evil to you, and he's never apologized. I don't think he actually _is_ sorry. At least I know that somewhere, deep down or even not so deep, Damon does regret what he did to me. He's proven it to me a dozen ways without ever saying it directly."

"And even knowing that about Klaus, you are getting involved?"

"Oh, I'm involved all right. And I don't know, Elena . . . I think there's a possibility that Klaus could become a _real_ person someday, you know? With the proper guidance, and support. And yes, someone to help him and actually care about him. Wait - can they hear us in here?"

Elena shook her head. "No, everything is soundproofed, even for vampire super hearing. That's why I closed the door."

"Whew. Okay, so I feel like I almost have no choice here. I'm kinda falling for him. I didn't want to, it just happened. But if I am going to do this, I owe it to like, the whole freaking world, to fix him, you know?"

"I don't think you can. I don't think anyone can. Klaus isn't some high school boy like Matt and Tyler who are going to let you run their lives for them. He can't be molded into the perfect boyfriend. He's been who is he is for over a thousand years, Caroline. If you can't accept him for who he is now . . . I don't want you to get in over your head. And he's _Klaus._ He might not ever let you go, even if you wanted to."

"No. No, it's not like that at all. I could walk out that door, and never look back. He would let me go. He's not like that with me."

"Still - I think it's a risk. And more of a challenge than you realize."

Caroline lifted her chin, and met Elena's gaze head on. "Maybe I am being stupid, but you know what? Challenge accepted."


	7. i and love and you

AN: I realize that the distinction between 'villains' and 'heroes' is a slippery and fuzzy one on TVD, and I'm not trying to imply that there *is* anything clear cut between the 'sins' of Damon or Stefan and the 'sins' of Klaus. But I do think it is very much in character for _Elena and Caroline_ to see such a distinction at this point in the show's (and story's) history. They have just spent a year or so trying to take down Klaus, and in seeing him as a Big Bad (THE Big Bad most of the time) and that's a view of a person that is hard to shake, even if you want to - which Elena doesn't, particularly. I don't happen to hold the precise same view of Klaus as they do, but our Mystic Falls girls have always been kind of judgey that way.

* * *

The scene in the dining room had apparently progressed from tense to explosive while they were gone.

Elena calmly stepped around where Klaus had Kol pinned up against the wall with one arm holding him there, Kol's feet dangling off the ground, a plastic knife stuck in his throat. "Did you want any tea, Elijah?"

"Yes, please. Thank you, Elena." Eiijah was finishing his meal, ignoring his brothers entirely.

Caroline stood in the doorway."Um. What just happened?"

"Nothing important, love," Klaus said, with a smile, never taking his eyes from Kol's.

"Kol made an indelicate remark about your posterior, and Niklaus quite naturally took offense. But please, sit. Eat," Elijah said, waving a hand at her fried rice.

"Fairly typical floor show for a Mikaelson family dinner," Rebekah said, putting the plastic lid on her soup. "Mine was cold. We should really get chafing dishes in here."

There was a fork in Klaus's other hand, and he stuck it in Kol's cheek, pushing it in slowly until the tines were completely buried to the hilt. Kol flinched, but said nothing. "May as well pack up his food. Our brother here is no longer hungry, isn't that right, Kol?"

Elena shook her head as she sat back down in her chair. "And I thought plastic utensils would be safer. I didn't even know one of you _could_ be staked with plastic. This changes everything."

"Klaus, maybe we should just go?" Caroline asked him. She walked over and put her hand on Klaus's shoulder. "I think there's a city that needs to be laid at my feet or whatever."

"Yes, of course." Klaus removed his arm, and stepped back, and Kol slid down the wall to his feet.

"Here, let me," Caroline said. She pulled the fork from Kol's cheek, and then pulled out the knife from his throat as well, dropping them both on the floor. "Ew. So gross." Caroline patted Kol's cheek, and said, "There, all better."

Kol smiled at her. "Thank you, darling Caro. You are a fine addition to the family."

"Yeah, no offense, but I so don't think that's a compliment."

"So, how long has this been going on, anyway?" Rebekah asked. "Not actually curious, just making conversation."

Caroline looked at Klaus, as she took his arm and led him to the door. "I don't actually know. What time is it now?"

"Just past nine," Elijah responded.

"Well, hey sweetie, we just celebrated our five hour anniversary." Over her shoulder, she said "Thanks for dinner, I guess. Elena, skipping our girl talk session, and I'll see you in the morning, 'kay?"

Elena gave her a little wave. "I'm leaving for the Berkshires at ten am, but I'll make sure I see you before then. Have fun."

"Right, fun."

* * *

Klaus and Caroline were both quiet in the elevator, until Caroline asked, "So what exactly _did_ he say about my ass?"

Klaus just shot her a dark look.

"Okay, fine. Never mind." Caroline sighed. "Let's not even go back to your place, let's just go. Get on the subway and go someplace entirely random."

Klaus made a face. "The subway, Caroline? I think not."

"Yes, absolutely the subway. This is New York." The elevator stopped at Klaus's floor, but Caroline pushed the button for 'L' and the doors closed again. "We walk out into the night, we find a subway, and then I get to pick the destination, 'kay?"

"Or we could go back upstairs, and I could show you a quite exquisite Hokusai that I had someone acquire in Geneva last month. _Carp leaping up a cascade_. It's wonderful," Klaus suggested in a hopeful tone.

"Nuh uh. Subway."

They walked out of the building, and Caroline stood on the sidewalk for a second, just to take in the night and the city.

"A little overwhelming," she said, exhaling. "This whole day has been a little overwhelming. I can't believe it was just over twenty four hours ago that I was graduating." She turned to Klaus, to see him looking at her with a smile. "What? You are staring at me, creeper."

"You are beautiful under the street lights."

"Well, yes. You are supposed to find me beautiful under every kind of light. So, where is it?"

"Where is what?"

"The subway, doofus. Where do we go?"

"I have no idea, love. I can't say that I have ever taken it."

"Never?"

"Why would I?"

Caroline snagged the arm of the nearest guy passing by. "Excuse me - where's the subway?"

"Hands off, lady. Geez."

"I don't think you heard me," Caroline said, with a smile. She made eye contact with the man. "I asked you where the subway is. Please."

"You can catch the 6 train at 77th and Lex," The guy said, in a daze.

Caroline let go of his arm and gave him a brilliant smile. "Thank you so much. And I love your tie. But you know, you shouldn't wear it with that shirt again. Bad idea."

"Okay," he said, stumbling away.

Caroline turned to Klaus and said, with a flourish of her hand, "Lead me to this 77th and Lex place."

It was a bit of a long walk, but it was a fine night and Caroline was enjoying herself.

They walked in silence for a couple of blocks and then she grabbed Klaus's hand and smiled at him. "Lighten up," she said. "This is _New York._ Anything can happen here. How cool is this?"

"Well, I wish I could say that your enthusiasm was infectious."

She tugged him closer to her, and wrapped her arm around his. "Let it infect you. Just let go in general."

Once they had walked down the steps into the subway station at 77th and Lexington, Caroline was perplexed. "Okay, what do we do now?"

Klaus shrugged. "Not really my arena. I could get us the best seats in the house at the Met tonight, though. They are doing Onegin, and it's a marvelous production. I saw Hvorostovsky sing Onegin a few years ago, although I believe it is Hampson this evening. But you would still adore it. If I call Carlos now, he could have us there in twenty minutes and we will only have missed the first Act. However, buying a ticket to ride one of these infernal trains is beyond me."

"Sometimes, you open your mouth and it's all just pretentious 'blah blah blah' to me. Money."

"What?"

Caroline held her hand out impatiently. "Give me some money. Duh."

He gave her a twenty, and she gave him a smile. "Thank you."

Since it it had worked earlier, Caroline grabbed the arm of a guy just about to walk over to a Metrocard machine. "Excuse me?"

"Um, yeah?"

She made eye contact with him. "Could you please show my friend and I how to buy a ticket, and how to get on a train, and where to go?"

"Okay." The man, in his 20s with a goatee and a large backpack, went to the machine with Caroline and explained how it worked. She bought two cards, and handed one to Klaus. They followed the guy through the turnstiles, and stood beside him on the platform - Caroline still holding on to the guy's arm.

"So what's your name and where are you going?" she asked him, giving his arm a little squeeze. Klaus stood beside her, his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed.

"My friends call me Tedrick. I live in Astoria."

"Tedrick! How cute. I like the name of your neighborhood, 'Astoria'. " Caroline turned to Klaus. "We're going to Astoria. We're coming home with Tedrick."

"We are not going to Astoria, Caroline."

"Yes, we are."

"Caroline, that is in _Queens," _Klaus explained, patiently. "We are not going to Queens."

"Wow, that's even better. 'Astoria, Queens'. It sounds lovely. We are so going."

"It's Queens, Caroline. It's not going to be lovely."

"You are such a snob. Is Queens lovely, Tedrick?"

"Uh, I guess so? Well, not really. I mean, the rent is good. I can afford the rent. But it's just Queens."

"And do you have lots of friends who also live in Queens, Tedrick?"

"Yeah."

"Good." She made eye contact with him again. "We are going to come home with you. You are going to call up your friends and invite them over. And we are going to have a party, 'kay?"

"I think I am going to invite you guys and my friends over for a party."

"Great! What a fantastic idea." She stuck her tongue out at Klaus, and he rolled his eyes.

"You are insane, Caroline. Look at this guy. Do you really want to meet his friends?"

"Hey," Tedrick started to say, and then he looked at Klaus and mumbled, "Never mind. It's cool."

"Stop insulting my good buddy, Tedrick. We are going to be best friends, Tedrick, and you are going to tell me the whole story of your life."

"Okay. So I was originally born in Dayton, but my folks moved us to Deerborn when I was three. My dad works in the auto industry and my mom teaches third grade. I have two older sisters. Amy still lives in Michigan and she's married to a tree surgeon. They have two kids, but they are both really bratty. Missy and her girlfriend moved to San Diego last year, and I don't get to see them very much. When I was thirteen, I had to wear braces, and I got them stuck in this other girl's braces - we weren't dating or anything, we were just goofing around. Her name was Laura Ridgely and she lived down the street from me. I had a dog when I was ten, but he got ran over by a car-"

"Oh, for the love of-" Klaus took a step towards Tedrick, but Caroline held him back. "No pushing Tedrick off the platform. Train is coming."

The train doors opened, and they stepped onto it, just as Tedrick was saying, "But I wasn't sure I wanted to major in Communications, so I switched my junior year. And after college, when I decided to move to New York, my girlfriend came with me, and-"

Caroline held up a hand, and sat down. "That's enough. Thank you, Tedrick. I feel like I really and truly know you, now." She pulled him down into a seat beside her, while Klaus stood leaning against a pole.

"You can sit, you know," Caroline said, looking up at him. "What, are we pouting?"

Klaus stared at the man sitting on the other side of Caroline, until the guy stood up and moved away. "Whatever, pal."

Klaus sat down in the seat left vacant just as the train began to move.

"I don't understand you, Caroline. I wanted to show you beauty and pleasure. I wanted to show you the night the way our kind is meant to enjoy it, here, in one of the world's greatest metropolises. And you are dragging me off to some bourgeois soiree with humans? Are we to drink Budweiser, and talk about the latest reality show offering from MTV?"

"I only keep Heineken in the apartment," Tedrick offered. "And I don't own a tv."

"Maybe so, Klaus," Caroline said, ignoring Tedrick. "Maybe that's exactly what I think you need. A little time spent in humanity. With typical humans - and I can't think of anyone more typical than our friend Tedrick. A connection to humanity. It's what you lack."

"Uh, thank you?" Tedrick said.

"What I _lack_?" Klaus growled. "Have you forgotten who I am? I am the Hybrid. I lack _nothing. _I'm not playing your games, Caroline. I am no one's project. The sooner you relinquish this idea, the better for the both of us."

Abruptly, Caroline asked him, "Would you fancy me just as much if I was still human? If you had met me before I was turned?"

"That's an absurd question."

"Is it? I think it's very much un-absurd. I ask again, would you have pursued me if I had been human when you came to Mystic Falls?"

"No, Caroline. Obviously, the answer is no. Unless I am preparing to dine on them, I have no interest in humans. I would not have even noticed you."

"God, are you _listening_ to yourself right now?" She shook her head in disgust. "You really do think you are so much above humans, and that's disturbing. And besides that, do you realize how much it _hurts_ me to know that you would care nothing for me if I wasn't a monster?"

"Humans _die!__"_ Klaus roared, making her jump. "In a thousand years, I have seen them all die. They are like mayflies who only live for a day. You cannot place any reliance upon a mayfly, Caroline. You cannot base your happiness on that of a mayfly. You can only swat it away and ignore it."

Caroline and Klaus locked eyes, neither of them willing to give up ground.

Tedrick and a woman holding onto the pole in front of them were both following this conversation with great interest. The woman asked Tedrick, "Are your friends rehearsing a play?"

"I have no idea. Maybe?"

"I would definitely buy tickets if they are. Ask them if they have any flyers."

"Do you mind?" Caroline said to the woman, impatiently. "God. This is a private discussion here." She looked back at Klaus. "And you aren't even willing to try? For me? Just turn yourself over to me for two weeks. Two weeks, that's all I ask. That's like five seconds to you, in your perspective. Less, even. At the end of two weeks, if you still think like that . . . that humans are no better than mayflies, that's fine. We'll go our separate ways, and that can be the end of us."

"Why is this so important to you, Caroline?" Klaus asked her, softly. "Why do you want so badly to remake me?"

"Because I could _love_ you. I know that I could. But not unless we have something to build on. You have to be a real person for me to love you, Klaus. Not just the Hybrid, not just the mightiest of the mighty. I mean, yes, I could stay with you, and God, the sex would continue to be incredible and yes, you can probably teach me tons about how to be who I am now. But none of that matters unless I know that we share the same view of the world that we live in. I'm not talking about changing all of your ethics, I'm just talking about not being so freaking arrogant that everyone else is dust beneath you."

"You think you could love me," Klaus said, his eyes on her face. "I can't be human for you, Caroline. If that is what it will take for you to love me, it's just not possible."

"No," Caroline shook her head. "I don't need you to _be_ human. I kinda really like the fact that you aren't. Huge turn on, and I mean that. I just need you to admit to the _value_ of humanity. Because I hold it very dear, and you do not."

There was silence. There was silence throughout their section of the train car, in fact, as the half a dozen people in it held their breaths, waiting for what Klaus was going to say. He looked around at all of the expectant faces.

"She wants me to hold your lives valuable," he said, addressing them. "She no longer wants me to see all of you as the dust beneath my feet. I could slaughter you, every last mayfly one of you, this second, and not blink. I will not do so, but I could. Just so you all know."

"Very well," Klaus said, turning back to Caroline. "I will give you your two weeks."


	8. be here now

Luckily, perhaps, for the particular people in that train car, it was time for Tedrick and his new friends to change over to the N,Q,R for the last leg of their journey to Astoria.

Caroline kept one eye on Klaus, and one arm on Tedrick. She was _not _going to get lost in some random underground station. Klaus was still quite clearly irritated, but he did give her a tight smile whenever he saw her looking at him.

He was moved to speak, however, once they reached Tedrick's building and had walked the four flights up to his apartment. After Tedrick invited them inside, Klaus took one look around, and declared, "Your flat is too small. It couldn't possibly get enough sunlight. This is a dismal disaster of a place."

"Uh, I did say it was a studio apartment?"

"And this is where we are going to hold the epic event that will change the very foundations of my world view, Caroline?"

"You," Caroline said to Klaus, "stand over there and shut up. Go stare at the wall or something. And you," she said, turning to Tedrick, "start calling your friends. How many can you fit in this place, anyway?"

"Well, we can usually get six in here comfortably. Maybe seven, if everyone sits on the bed, and most of the people are skinny. There's the three of us now. And my girlfriend, Michelle, will be home soon. So I can call two more people? Any more than that, and we will have to use the roof deck."

"Roof deck! Excellent. Get to work on that."

"This," Klaus said suddenly, pointing at a sketch pinned to the wall. "You did this?"

"Oh, no," responded Tedrick. "My girlfriend, Michelle, is an art teacher. That is one of her students' work. She is always bringing stuff home."

"A child did this?" Klaus mused, still studying it. "Yes, it is crude. But I like the lines on it."

A glimmer of an idea started in Caroline's head. She looked at Tedrick as though he was the answer to every prayer she had ever had. "So when you call your friends? Mostly call your artist friends, 'kay?"

"Oh, yeah. We have lots of those."

"Great. Do that. And have them bring beer."

She left Tedrick sitting on the bed with his phone, sending out texts, and walked the five steps over to where Klaus was standing. "Art teacher, huh? That's kind of interesting."

"Interesting?" Klaus looked at her. "Yes, I'm quite sure that the snotty nosed human children of Queens provide fertile ground for art education."

All of the walls were covered with sketches and paintings. Nothing on canvas, just paper tacked on the walls by blue sticky balls of goo. Klaus was still glancing around, when the door to the apartment opened.

"Teddy? Are you home-" A woman in her 20s with short brunette hair walked in, and then stopped when she saw Klaus and Caroline.

"Hi, I'm Caroline, and this is Klaus," Caroline said, with a bright smile and an outstretched hand. The woman paused, because her arms were full of cartons and boxes. "Oh, sorry. Let me help you with those."

"It's okay." The woman set her things down, and then shook Caroline's hand. Klaus did not turn around from the drawing he was looking at. "I'm Michelle. I live here."

Tedrick looked up from his phone. "Hey, honey. Caroline is my new best friend."

"Wait, what?"

"Oh, you know Teddy - so friendly. Klaus and I met him on the train, and we totally hit it off right away. He just insisted that we come home with him to meet you. Klaus is an art teacher, too."

"Really?" Michelle looked at Klaus, but he only shot Caroline a dark glare, and said nothing.

"Yep."

"Where do you teach?"

"He used to teach in Virginia, but his position was cut so we decided to come up here, and try our luck in New York. Any tips?"

"Well, I doubt you will have better luck here. There have been so many budget cuts across the state, that I don't know of a single full time art position anywhere. Mine was cut a year ago, so now I am working part time with a non-profit art education group teaching at schools during the day, and classes at the Y at night. We're itinerant, and go from school to school, trying to fill in the gaps left by those idiots in Albany."

"Don't get her started on those idiots in Albany," Tedrick said, still bent over his texting. "She really hates those idiots in Albany."

"Oh, sure, don't we all? So, are there any open teaching positions in your group?"

"Terrible idea, Caroline," Klaus said, softly, not looking at her at all. "I won't do it."

"You will," she hissed at him over her shoulder, "What part of 'turn yourself over to me for two weeks' are you not getting?"

Michelle looked back and forth between them. "Well, it's not that we couldn't use another teacher, because we definitely could. We could use a dozen. But there's no funding, I'm afraid. There's never enough of that."

"Right, I totally understand," Caroline said, nodding. "I don't think that's going to be a problem."

"I'm sorry?" Michelle asked, very confused.

"Never mind. I'll sort that out later. So can you take me up to the roof deck? I think that's where we are having the party."

"Party?"

Caroline took Michelle by the arm. "I'll explain on the way up. Let's leave the boys here to get better acquainted. Klaus is just dying to know more about that time when Tedrick's braces got tangled up with Laura Ridgely's braces."

* * *

Apparently, Michelle and Tedrick's friends needed very little convincing to show up en masse with a lot of drinks and food. It was actually a decent party, despite the fact that Caroline wasn't able to do anything more than move some seats and planters around on the deck to create more intimate seating areas. The space was already strung with small white lights, the view from up there was sublime, and it turned out that Tedrick had recently joined a band as the banjo player- so they even had live music. Music that made Klaus cringe and wince, but still. Seeing him clearly uncomfortable didn't take anything away from Caroline's general sense of triumph.

Klaus had been cornered by a photographer named Dmitri, who was extolling in great detail his latest project involving pig carcasses and recreating old Hollywood movies scenes. Apparently, he had just finished a pig that was a dead ringer for Marlene Dietrich. Caroline figured that would keep Klaus occupied for all of six more minutes before he either pitched Dmitri off the roof, or set fire to him. So she needed to work fast.

Caroline found out from Michelle that there were three other people in the building who were connected to artWHEELS ("It's kind of a pun, see?" Michelle explained), the art education organization that she taught for. Mallory Bright, one of the other teachers, who had a one bedroom on the top floor, and John and Annie Dodd, the co-founders, who lived on the ground floor with their three kids.

"Mallory is very sweet, but she's a trust fund kid and nobody really understands why she's slumming it here in Astoria. Well, in this building anyway. We don't even have air conditioning. She used to live in Williamsburg, but she says it got too pretentious," Michelle told Caroline.

Armed with that info, Caroline targeted Mallory first. She found her drinking a Heineken, and talking about those idiots in Albany with some random guy that Caroline completely ignored.

"Hi, I'm Caroline!"

"Hey." Mallory turned away from her conversation.

"So you like art?"

"Yes, of course I do. I teach art."

"Great! Do you like Paris?"

"Yes. I love Paris. Wait- who did you say you were again?"

"Would you like to go to Paris for, oh, let's say two weeks, to study art there?"

"What?"

Caroline sighed, and then leaned in and made eye contact. She said, in a low voice, "You want to go to Paris for two weeks. You want to sublet your apartment to me and my boyfriend. You want to leave tomorrow morning. You are super excited about this trip, and you can't wait to tell your boss that he needs to find someone to cover your classes while you are gone."

"I'm so excited about this trip to Paris that I am taking tomorrow."

"Really? That's awesome. Can I have the keys to your apartment?"

"Yes."

"Oh, wait. You will need those to sleep there tonight, I guess. I'll get them from you in the morning, okay?"

"Okay."

"Wonderful! Maybe you should go home, and start packing."

"Yes. I think I am going to go home and pack. I am so excited about this trip to Paris. I need to go and tell John and Annie."

"Bye, now!" Caroline ushered her to the roof deck door, just as it burst open and a large man with a bushy red beard, and a small red headed child in pajamas attached to his shoulders, came through it.

The large man announced in a loud, deep voice, "I have arrived. I am here to meet the interesting people our Teddy brought home."

"Oh, hey," Caroline said, with a wave. "I'm one of those, I guess. Caroline Forbes."

The man took a deep breath, inflating his already barrel like chest. "I am the Famous John Dodd. And this is my son, Little John."

"Famous, eh? I've never heard of you, mate," Klaus said, appearing behind Caroline's shoulder. Caroline took a quick look around, to make sure she spotted Dmitiri on the top side of the deck. He was in a different corner, making someone else listen to his pig carcass Marlene Dietrich story. That was a relief.

A small dark haired woman with bright blue eyes, nudged John Dodd aside. She had a little girl holding onto her long skirt, and a curly haired toddler in her arms. "Oh, you wouldn't have. He's only a legend in his own mind."

"Well, I've heard of you," Caroline said, "and I am so glad to meet you. And you must be Annie Dodd. You guys created artWHEELS, right? That is so cool."

John inclined his head, and nearly dislodged Little John. "Oh, I will catch you, son." And he tilted his head so that the boy landed in his arms, and then slid to the ground and took off running. "And no sneaking beer!" John called after him.

"He's always sneaking beer," Annie explained. "Yes, we run artWHEELS. Although 'run' is perhaps the wrong word. We keep things from blowing up or falling down, basically."

Mallory moved directly in front of John and Annie. "I am very excited about going to Paris tomorrow. I will be gone for two weeks. You need to find someone to handle my classes. I have to go home and start packing."

"Seriously, Mallory?" Annie asked, with a frown. "You have P.S. 150 and P.S. 111 on Monday. You couldn't have given us more notice?"

"I am very excited about going to Paris tomorrow -"

"Oh, wow," Caroline cut in, "what an amazing coincidence!" She grabbed Klaus's arm, and brought him close, ignoring his scowl. "Klaus here, is an art teacher looking for a position. He'll totally take a two week gig, no problem."

"Well, I don't know . . . " Annie said, looking at Klaus, doubtfully. "What ages have you taught before? Where did you study? What is your medium?"

"Pish posh, Annie, don't bother the man with trivialities," John Dodd said. He wrapped an arm around Klaus's shoulders and began to lead him away towards a banquette by the edge of the deck. "Come, let us talk of art. Great art. The art of the ages. The sort of art that makes a grown man weep tears of joy, tears of sorrow, and tears of orgiastic pleasure."

Klaus looked back at Caroline with narrowed eyes, but she just gave him a big smile and two thumbs up. Then she turned back to Annie. "Can I help you with the kiddos?"

"Oh, would you take Livia?" Annie asked gratefully, handing the toddler to Caroline. She then bent down to to the older girl, and said, "Piper, honey, go and sit with your daddy. In about ten minutes, you need to start crying and throwing a fit, and telling daddy that you are sleepy and he has to carry you to bed. I'll give you a hand signal when it's time. Can you do that?" Piper nodded her head, and sleepily yawned as she went over to her father's knee. He was gesticulating wildly to Klaus, his hands forming so broad a circle that he almost knocked the bottle of beer from a random person's hand.

"They should have stayed in bed, but Teddy sent us such a strange text about his best friend and her boyfriend throwing a party, and John couldn't resist getting them up and taking them here. He thinks it's a bohemian upbringing to drag them to these things, and I indulge him occasionally. So, how long have you known Teddy?"

Caroline held the toddler in her arms. Such a sweet weight, she thought. Livia had reddish gold curls, big brown eyes, long eyelashes, and a tiny thumb stuck firmly in her mouth. "Oh, my. She's such a doll. How long have I known Tedrick? Well, I'm not exactly sure. What time is it now? Oh, wait, she's falling asleep."

"Well, no wonder, you know exactly the right way to hold her. Do you two have kids of your own?"

Caroline looked over at Klaus, and saw that he was watching her nestling the child against her chest with a very odd expression on his face. She remembered how he told her that he saw her as Vesta, and she wondered if he was thinking the same thing now.

"Nope, no kids. Not sure that's ever in the cards for us, to be honest."

"It's not right for everyone, that's for sure. So, about your boyfriend subbing for Mallory . . . is he really available on Monday? There is no way we could find someone else in this short of notice. Where did you say he taught before?"

"Virginia. Small, private school, that you probably have never heard of it. He's a fabulous teacher, though, and kids love him."

"Really?" Annie looked over at Klaus, who was leaning close to John, and had started a spirited argument with him. "He's very . . . well, I won't say intimidating, because that's not very positive. But he has a very definite presence, don't you think? I'm surprised that kids respond to him like that."

"Oh, yeah. Everyone loves Klaus. He was super popular at the school. But you know how these things go, funding just disappears."

Annie sighed. "Oh, yes. We definitely know all about that. Speaking of, this really doesn't pay very much, you know."

"Oh, that's fine. Just to get something on the resume that's New York based would be helpful. And maybe he'll meet some people this way."

"True."

"Oh, and I'm his teaching assistant- I assume that's okay?"

"We can't afford to send two people out, not at all."

"No worries, I'll just do it as a volunteer." Caroline gave Annie her biggest and brightest smile. "So it's all good? He has the job?"

"I suppose, as long as his references check out. And we have to do a criminal background check on anyone we send into a classroom, of course."

Caroline sighed. "Didn't want to do it this way." She leaned in, and made eye contact with Annie. "You are going to hire Klaus. Oh, and me, too. You are very happy to do it. Our references and background all check out fine. You are very impressed with his credentials."

"You know, I am very impressed with Klaus's credentials. I think you two will work out just fine for the next two weeks. I am so happy to bring you on board."

"Great! We're so happy, too."

* * *

Piper fell asleep in her father's lap long before it was time for Annie to give her the hand signal to begin her histrionics, and Klaus and John continued talking for another couple of hours. Little John also fell asleep - from where he was hiding under the beer table - and Caroline and Annie sat on some pillows on the deck floor while Livia snored lightly in Caroline's arms. The band had stopped playing awhile ago, and the crowd had started to thin out considerably.

Annie was very curious about Caroline and Klaus, where they were from, how they met, how long they had been a couple - and Caroline was enjoying herself making up stories. Annie was impressed that Klaus and Caroline had overcome the obstacles of a disapproving family, and a disapproving town.

"Oh, it was quite the scandal," Caroline said. "I mean, he was my _teacher_ and I was his _student_, and we both knew there would be hell to pay if we ever got caught. I was only sixteen, after all. But oh," Caroline sighed, "such was the power of our love. And when we were found in a supply closet by the janitor, we knew that Klaus's career was over. We were run out of town."

Annie frowned. "Wait, I thought you said he lost his job because funding was cut."

"Oh, crap. I got carried away." Caroline made eye contact with Annie again. "Forget that whole story about the underage fooling around, okay?'

It took three more tries (they had met on a bicycling trip through the South of France, Klaus had been the cop who had arrested her for shoplifting at the mall, Klaus was the lifeguard who had saved her from drowning- no wait, - from a shark attack), before Caroline finally settled on the story that she had been a barista, and Klaus had come into her coffee shop for an espresso every day just to see her - even though he never drank coffee. She figured that was easy to stick to, since Klaus actually didn't drink coffee.

Annie agreed that it was a very romantic story. Of course, she had thought that about the other stories as well, the ones she could not now remember.

"What about you and John?"

"Oh, nothing very earth shattering. I was an art model in college, and John was the instructor who hired me. So he saw a lot of me before we actually started seeing each other, if you know what I mean. What are those two talking about, anyway?"

Caroline tuned into the conversation going on across the roof deck. She could hear John saying, "But Expressionism was already dead by that time! Kandinsky killed it!"

And Klaus was shaking his head, and stating emphatically, "No, no, no. Kandinsky had nothing to do with that. And it lived on in pockets of Berlin and Vienna for far longer than those art historians would have you believe. Those pedants would say that all art turned to shit and piss after Schiele, but that is far from the truth. And feeling, true feeling in a similar form, has lived on in literature even longer."

John waved a hand around wildly, nearly ditching his daughter to the floor. "Literature! I care nothing for literature. It's words, words, words. I hate words! Words are trouble, friend! May all words be as nothing more than spit and air. Bah!"

His gesticulating, knocked Piper half off of his lap, and half onto Klaus's lap. The little girl curled her arm around Klaus's waist in her sleep, and held on to him tightly. Caroline watched as Klaus's eyes widened, and he looked at her, Caroline, with an expression akin to panic.

"Oh, well," Caroline said, "we should probably make everyone shut up and go away, so we can take the kids to bed now, don't you think?"

"We don't have to close the party down completely. These things last all night sometimes. But yes, we should take the children downstairs, now." Annie stood, and reached down for Livia. "Here, let me have her. You've been so nice to hold her all of this time."

Caroline was almost sorry to give Livia back to her mother. There was a little warm drool on her arm, and on her dress, but it had otherwise been a very pleasant experience. She stood, just as John and Klaus approached them, each holding a sleeping child.

Caroline raised an eyebrow at the sight of Klaus carrying Piper. "Well, don't you look sweet."

He merely grimaced at her, and thrust the child into her arms. "She snores. And drools," Klaus said, shortly. Caroline cradled Piper, brushing the curls from her forehead.

John shifted Little John to his other shoulder and said, "Annie, my dear, I am taking our new friends down to see my work."

Annie shook her head. "No, you aren't, John. It's very late, and I'm sure they need to go to sleep."

"Nonsense! Who can sleep when there is work to be shown, to be seen, to be done! Come, friends." And John swept before them through the roof door.

Annie merely sighed. "Well, I guess that is what we are doing. You may as well follow me."

* * *

And that's how Caroline found herself standing in what was basically a shack, jerryrigged from bits of lumber and tin, in the tiny scrubby backyard of a ground floor apartment in Astoria, Queens, at 2AM on the Saturday after she graduated from Mystic Falls High.

John Dodd called this shack his 'studio', but Caroline could tell from Klaus's expression that he was not impressed. That all changed, however, once John pulled the cord to turn on the one bare bulb hanging from the ceiling and hooked up to an extension cord that led back into the apartment kitchen.

Klaus stood in the very center of the studio, transfixed by the dozens of canvases and scraps of paper covering the weathered boards that made the walls.

Caroline was quite surprised as well. There was nothing about the large man that suggested he would have such a delicate and ethereal touch with charcoal and a paint brush. The paintings and sketches that hung everywhere were very otherworldly, and yet grounded in a realism that made Caroline feel like she was looking through a mirror into a world that was not hers, and yet definitely _was_ hers in every way.

Klaus slowly turned around the small space, saying nothing.

John bumped into Caroline while trying to pull a large canvas out from behind a rusty drafting table, "Oh, my dear, didn't mean to overset you. I'm a large barge in a tiny port. All boats caught in my wake."

"Oh, I'm fine. No worries."

"And it's Caroline, isn't it? You didn't think I was paying attention, but I was. Such an old fashioned name, 'Caroline'. I'm delighted with it. Wasn't there once a queen named Caroline?"

"Caroline of Ansbach, she married Prinny before he was king. Such a mistake," Klaus remarked, idly. He leaned closer to study the detail on a painting of waves that became horses when they touched the shore. He touched the curl of a wave with his finger. "Terrible woman. Terrible smell. Uneducated, unattractive. I didn't blame him in the slightest for trying to divorce her."

"Klaus," Caroline said, in a warning tone.

He looked up, "Yes, Caroline?"

John was still rooting through canvases, and it didn't seem like he was paying attention to what Klaus had said. "Nevermind," she responded, thankful for the absentee artistic mind.

"She could not hold a single candle to you, love. My own queen," Klaus said, sending a smile her way. He was in a remarkably better mood now that they were away from the roof deck party.

"Oh ho, it's like that, is it? Well, that's how I feel about my Annie, of course. Queen of my heart, my home, my wallet. She rules my life with an iron fist, as you have both probably observed. Here," John said with a flourish, as he found the piece he was looking for, and pulled it out from behind the others. "What do you think of that, eh?"

Caroline gasped. It wasn't a very large painting, but it had a large impact on the viewer. It was recognizably a painting of Annie holding Livia, but it was done in a style so reminiscent of a Renaissance work that it was obviously meant as a Madonna and Child. It was the colors - the scarlet reds and deep blues and truest golds- that momentarily stunned her, though.

"There's another one around here that I did of Annie and Little John as a pieta, but I can't seem to find it," John complained. "Annie must have 'tidied up'. Bah, women."

Klaus took a step back from the painting, and demanded, "I will buy them all. Sell them to me."

"What? You really want them?"

"Klaus!" Caroline said, with a hiss.

"What, Caroline?"

"Ixnay on the rich guy stuff, okay, Mr. Art Teacher? In two weeks you can buy it all, not tonight."

Klaus sighed, impatiently. "Fine." He made eye contact with John Dodd. "Forget that I asked about buying your artwork. You are just now showing me your wonderful Madonna."

"Here, what do you think of this Madonna, eh? I think I have a pieta around here somewhere, but I can't seem to find it."

"I think your Madonna is wonderful," Klaus said, gravely. "I sincerely think it is wonderful."

"Knew you would, friend. I knew you would. A man who appreciates a callback to the classics, correct? I only wish more galleries shared such appreciation. Been a long dry spell for me, you know. Long and dry, indeed."

By the way that Klaus protested about leaving the paintings and sketches in the decrepit 'studio', as they returned to the kitchen, Caroline knew that he already thought of them as belonging to him. John waved away his concern, saying that a little weathering and exposure was good for the materials. "I never like to use paper or canvas that hasn't been through at least a half dozen rainstorms," he declared. "There should be nothing sterile about art."

Annie shushed him when they entered, pointing back towards the bedrooms. "If you wake up Piper, she will insist on another story - and I just can't face more pirate's tales of derring do tonight, if you please."

"My Annie is an artist, too," John said, proudly, grabbing his wife around the waist and placing a loud, wet kiss on her cheek. "She's a fabric artist."

"Everyone is an artist to John. I'm not at all, actually. I knit ridiculous sweaters that no one in my family will wear, and rightly so. You just got into town today, right? Where are the two of you staying?"

"Well, we were going to spend the night at a place in Manhattan," Caroline said, looking at Klaus. "Our sublet here doesn't start until tomorrow."

Klaus shrugged. "It was your choice to come to Queens, Caroline."

"Oh, it is much too late to be taking the subway back. You can stay here, on the couch. It folds out," Annie said.

"That is a very good idea," John agreed. "And tomorrow, I will show you more of my things. And Sunday evening, you will come to the Biergarten with us, and meet the others."

"The others?" Caroline asked.

"John has a group of people that he calls the Consortium. Just a bunch of trust fund kids, and starving artists who like to get together a couple of times a week, and drink beer and talk loudly about projects that no one will ever complete, and no one will ever see, and no one will ever buy. Let me just go and find some sheets, and I will make up the couch for you."

"I'll help you," Caroline said, and they left the small kitchen together.

* * *

Later, after John and Annie had gone to their own room, and Klaus was holding her in his arms on the creaky couch bed, Caroline wondered if it was too early to start congratulating herself yet.

Now, if Michelle had been a server at Cracker Barrel, would she have made Klaus don a brown apron and work two weeks's worth of shifts slinging fried chicken and biscuits? She wasn't sure. But serendipity was proving to be favoring her, and she was very pleased at the moment.

"Thank you," she said to him, softly. "I know this isn't easy for you, but you are giving me a gift by doing this. I won't forget it."

"We could end it all. One word from you, and Carlos could be here in twenty minutes to take us away from this," Klaus said, with a whisper in her ear. "If you did not want to go back to Elijah's building, we could go to the St. Regis and order room service, and feast on the person who brings it to us. Share their warm blood with each other, and top it off with a bottle of champagne."

"No. This is better." He was hot and hard against her back, and she could feel herself begin to shiver slightly again.

"If you say so. It is ridiculous, but we will leave it for now. Are you hungry, Caroline?"

Caroline shrugged. "I'm okay. Can probably last until morning. What about you?"

"I am fine. My needs will never be as great as yours in that area. Other areas, however-" His mouth was suddenly hot and insistent upon the back of her neck, and across her shoulders.

"Klaus!" she said, halfway between a whisper and a moan. "Children are sleeping only like, thirty feet away from us."

"Well aware of that, love. Everyone in this blasted family snores. But I am not sleeping next to you without making love to you, Caroline. That is too much to ask. Especially if I only have these next two weeks with you, before you insist upon leaving me."

"That's reasonable," Caroline answered, nearly shaking with need now. She was never going to be able to say no to him. Not about this. She would never want to. "Quiet, though."

Caroline could feel the reverberations along her spine, as Klaus chuckled softly against her shoulder. "More of a challenge for you than for me, my dear. You make noises like a bobcat when I am inside you."

Caroline sucked in her breath, as his tongue ran over the edge of her ear. "Well, I'm a match for you, then. My wolf." She twisted in his arms to face him, to hold him, to kiss him.

And when, about thirty minutes later, they heard Little John walk sleepily from the children's room to his parent's room, saying, "Mommy, I heard bears in the house. Scary bears." Klaus had to clap a hand over Caroline's mouth to keep her from laughing.

* * *

AN: Roof deck parties with bad beer and pretentious artist hipsters! Yes, I used to live in Williamsburg. And why was there always the one guy playing the banjo? Poor Tedrick.


	9. est ce que tu

When she woke up the next morning, Caroline was almost surprised to find herself still in the Dodds' apartment in Queens. She had dreamt of the St. Regis, of luxe bedding and champagne and a really deep bathtub, and the reality was a shock. But Klaus was there, and she was still wrapped in his arms, and that definitely lined up with her dream.

"You are still here," she said to him, turning to him, and putting a hand on either side of his face. She rubbed the golden scruff along his jawline with her thumbs. "I thought perhaps you might sneak away into the night."

"I never 'sneak', Caroline. And do you think I would abandon you in _Queens?_ I am not letting you out of my sight for the next thirteen days, no matter how ludicrous things get." Klaus captured her mouth with his, and then left her mouth to trail kisses along her neck. "I'm assuming you are hungry now," he murmured against her skin.

"Mmm hmmm," Caroline moaned. Then a sniffling noise caught her attention, and her eyes flew open.

Three identical pairs of brown eyes stared back at her. All three children were standing beside the couch bed. Caroline was suddenly very glad that she had thought to put her dress back on after Round Two last night.

Livia took her thumb out of her mouth to say, "Gross."

"Yeah, really gross," Little John commented.

Piper said, "Do it again. I want to see if it's just as gross the second time."

"Kids, leave them alone. Are you two hungry? The children and I are vegetarians, but if you don't want tofu scramble this morning, I think John has some sausage in the refrigerator," Annie asked, as she came into the living room.

Caroline sat up, and then looked back at Klaus, but his face was unreadable. He folded his arms behind his head, and stared up at the ceiling. Caroline had no clue what he was thinking, but she doubted that it boded well for her, or her plans. Although, just like the walls, the ceiling was covered in drawings and sketches and bit and pieces of paper and canvas, so he could have just found something worth staring at up there. Now that Caroline could see the living room in the sunlight, there was hardly an uncovered inch anywhere. Some was clearly John's work, but an equal number appeared to have been made by the children.

"Um, no. Thank you, though. We have a lot to do this morning to get our sublet set up. Mallory is letting us have her apartment while she is gone," Caroline answered Annie.

"Really? How odd. Mallory doesn't even let people come inside her apartment usually. She must have really liked you."

"Guess so."

Piper and Little John followed their mother into the kitchen, while Livia held her arms out to Caroline. Caroline helped Livia clamber up onto the couch bed. "Good morning, doll baby. Here, let me get that." Caroline wiped a little drool off Livia's chin, and laughed. "And you called us 'gross', you little drool machine."

"Daddy sleeping."

"Is he?"

Annie said, from inside the kitchen, "Oh, unless he has a class to teach, John never gets out of bed until noon. He's a night owl. I swear, if I didn't know any better, I'd think he was a vampire."

Livia climbed out of Caroline's lap, and onto Klaus's chest.

"You sleeping?" Livia asked, poking him in the face. When he didn't respond, she stuck a tiny finger in his nose. Klaus said nothing, he only glared at her, and then looked at Caroline with narrowed eyes.

Caroline laughed, and picked Livia up off of Klaus. She stood, with Livia still in her arms, and carried her into the kitchen. "Leave him alone, he's grumpy in the morning," she told the toddler.

"John is the exact same way. Luckily, my kids all inherited my sunny morning disposition," Annie said, as she put tofu, green peppers and mushrooms into a pan on the stove. "You sure you don't want any?"

"No, I think I saw a coffee shop a couple of blocks away. I'm more of a danish or muffin person."

"Oh, right. You probably got accustomed to a lot of sweet baked goods when you used to work at a place like that."

"When I . . . oh, yes. That's absolutely what happened. Gotta have my sweet stuff. So, when should we come by to talk about Klaus's first teaching assignment?"

"John will be up at noon, but he won't be coherent until about two. Stop by here anytime after that. He'll want to give Klaus a final briefing. I'll have paperwork ready for you both to sign, too. You can even wait until the evening, and go from here to the bar with him for the Consortium. Oh, but if you guys could manage to catch Mallory before she leaves, she can tell you where she left off with those two schools."

"The public schools are all in session, still? We had our last day on Friday. I mean, the schools back in Mystic Falls did."

"You probably didn't have as many snow days to deal with this year. It was a rough winter here. We have so many days to make up for, that the kids are going to be in school another eight days. And then our summer art classes start right up after that." Annie finished scrambling the tofu, and started scooping it into bowls. "So, Mystic Falls was the name of your town? Pretty name. I've never heard of it."

"No, you wouldn't have. Hey, hey, stop that, now." Caroline bent down and picked Livia up again, because the little girl kept going underneath Caroline's skirt, to try and climb up her legs. Caroline turned around with Livia on her hip to see where the other two kids had gone. She could hear giggles, but she didn't see them in the kitchen. "Where'd your siblings go?" she asked Livia, who sucked her thumb and gave her a blank stare.

"They are under the table," Annie explained. "It's a pirate ship this week, I think."

"No," Piper said, her voice muffled by the tablecloth. "It's a lab'tory, and I'm making Little John into a frankenstein."

"Into Frankenstein's monster," Klaus corrected, standing in the doorway to the kitchen. "This would make _you _Frankenstein. Mrs. Dobbs, we thank you for your hospitality, but Caroline - we have many things to do today."

"Oh, right." Caroline handed Livia to Klaus. He took her. Reluctantly, and as thought she was made out of toxic waste, but he did take her. "Hold her a sec, I just have to run to the bathroom, and then we can go. Ugh, my dress is such a wrinkled mess."

"Do you need to borrow an iron?" Annie asked her.

"Oh, no, I'm sure Mallory has one."

When Caroline returned to the kitchen after tidying up, Klaus was sitting at the table with Livia on his knee. He was feeding Livia her tofu scramble, which was tricky because she refused to take her thumb out of her mouth. The expression on his face was one more of resignation than panic, though. Little John was standing on the rungs on the back of his chair, and he was blowing puffs of air to make Klaus's hair stand up.

"Little John, stop that," Annie said, coming over and pulling her son off of Klaus's chair. "Thank you so much, Klaus dear, but I can take over feeding duty now."

Klaus dislodged Livia from his lap, and stood up. "Ready?" he asked Caroline, and she nodded.

Annie sat down in the chair he just vacated, and started to feed a standing Livia. "Forgive me for not walking you guys out. Oh, and this is going to sound crazy, but do the two of you ever babysit?"

Caroline began to say, "Oh, yes-" but then she saw Klaus's face, and changed it to, "Well, I don't know. We'll talk later about it, 'kay? Thanks, Annie."

As they left the Dodds and started the five flight climb up to Mallory's apartmart, Klaus said to her, "Not happening. Not ever."

"Well, we'll see about that. Personally, I think you look adorable feeding a three year old on your lap." Caroline reached over, and flicked some tofu off his shirt. "Even if you did end up wearing her breakfast."

"Not the greatest idea to hand me a human child when I am this hungry, Caroline."

"Oh, right. Like you would eat Livia." Caroline looked at him, hard. "Wait, you wouldn't, would you?"

Klaus said nothing, but his face darkened. Caroline sighed. "Tell you, what, even if it does seem a little ungrateful, let's just share Mallory this morning after she invites us in. She seems like the type to own a lot of scarves anyway."

* * *

Mallory was delicious. She reminded Caroline of warm summer days and watermelon. And yes, she did own a lot of scarves.

She happily left for the airport, after showing them how to operate the shower head and how to increase the water pressure (you had to bang on a pipe at least three times), and as soon as she was out the door, Caroline pounced on Klaus.

"God, I don't know what it is about sharing a meal with you," she said, as she tried to kiss him. "Makes me super hot."

He held her off, however, and insisted upon walking around the space first. "No, no, bobcat. Later, I promise."

Caroline pouted, but she acquiesced.

"Hmmm . . . I think this could work," Klaus mused to himself, as he checked out the living room and the bedroom.

"We're in the back corner, so it does get lots of sunlight," Caroline noted.

"Yes, that's important."

"And she has a studio area set up already in the bedroom. You could paint while we are here."

"It's a possibility."

"And you don't mind about the water pressure? It's a top floor apartment, so that's not a surprise."

"Honestly, Caroline, I lived nearly a millenium without any water pressure at all. Indoor plumbing is fairly new. I won't notice."

"Oh, right. You won't notice the lack of air conditioning either. And she doesn't seem to own a tv. Wait, she doesn't own a tv? Oh, God. I should have thought this through better."

"Ha!" Klaus laughed, shortly. "The lack of tv is what makes you realize this is a bad plan? As soon as you find out what shows you will be missing, you are going to beg me to take you back to Manhattan. You'll never last two whole weeks."

"No, silly. The Dodds have a tv - I'll just go hang out with Annie and the kids when I need to."

Klaus shuddered. "Those children. Tiny, snotty, drooling, snoring . . . "

"Aw, they are so sweet. Don't be a speciesist. If that's the right word. And you had better get used to children, since that is who we will be spending our days with starting tomorrow. Oh, crap. We forgot to find out Mallory's lesson plan before she left."

"I didn't forget, I simply chose not to ask. I'm assuming that you will change your mind about all of this long before my so-called teaching career materializes."

"Not going to happen." Caroline looked around. She approved of Mallory's cream-on-cream decor, and with the pops of bright red and turquoise in the throw pillows and curtains. Even if Mallory was slumming it in this building, she didn't seem to mind spending top dollar on furniture and comfort up here. And everything hanging on the walls was very tasteful, too. Caroline liked it much better than Klaus's storage unit on Park Avenue. "I'm really glad she doesn't have a cat that we have to take care of."

"What are you doing?" she asked Klaus, when she noticed that he was pulling his phone out.

"Calling Elijah. If we are really going to continue this nonsense, I will need things sent over from my place. And I assume you would like your overnight bag."

"God, yes. And my flat iron. I can tell that Mallory doesn't have one, even though she desperately needs it. Don't forget blood bags, too. Maybe Elijah can keep us stocked?"

"Yes, I imagine so."

While Klaus made his call, Caroline decided to take a shower. The bathroom was the least nice room in the apartment, but that made sense. It's not like renters, no matter how rich, are going to bother remodling a bathroom. Klaus opened the bathroom door just as she was getting out of the shower, and held the phone out to her.

"Elijah would like to speak to you. I don't think he believes me."

Caroline grabbed a towel, and then took the phone from him, and said, "Hey there. Whatever he told you, it's probably true. No matter how strange it sounds."

There was silence, and then Elijah said, "Elena was concerned when she could not find you this morning."

"I know, I'm so sorry. Can you tell her that?"

"Of course. And this is _your_ idea, then?"

"Yes."

"Very well, I will have everything sent over. To Queens_._ Also, I will text a number to Klaus's phone, that you can use at any time if you need anything. Anything at all. And Elena could probably loan you some of her clothes. I assume that you do need some things to wear?"

Caroline looked down at her naked self. "That would be _awesome._"

"Then I wish you the very best of luck with your experiment." Elijah hesitated, and then added, "There is really only one other thing I would like to say to you."

"Yes?"

"Brava, Caroline. I am impressed."

* * *

Klaus convinced Caroline that she should make some other calls, so she used his phone to call her mom and Damon (conveniently listed on Klaus's contact list as 'Sheriff' and 'Salvatore 2'). Her mom was worried, but more or less resigned to her absence.

Damon, however, was not happy, especially when she asked him to push back the start date on her internship again. "I'm just going to give the damn internship to Melody Fell," he told her. 'Oh, wait, I forgot that I don't actually like Melody Fell. She would drive me nuts within a day. Whatever. I'll hold it for you. You are missing the circus here, though."

"What?"

"The Three Ring Tragedy of Tyler Lockwood. First, he's cursing Klaus's name, then he's drinking himself blind on my couch, and then for his final trick, he's passing out drunk and drooling on my rug. Call him, and tell him to get the hell out of my house."

"Why can't you tell him?"

"I can't. I can't look at those big dumb brown eyes of his. He's just too fucking sad. He's making everyone depressed. Even the dog is moping around the house, and won't go into any room Tyler is in. But hey, never you mind. You just do a little shopping, take in a show, enjoy the city, and I'll have Katherine kick him out. Or sleep with him. Either way, that should work."

"Don't let Katherine sleep with him! God, are you joking? She's a man ruiner."

"That she is. So if you don't want Tyler ruined, then just come the fuck home."

"Ignoring you, now. Bye, Damon."

She wanted to call Elena as well, but Klaus did not have her number ("Why would I, Caroline? I don't even like Elena."), and so she briefly did consider calling Tyler instead.

Nope. No way. She wouldn't be ready to face Tyler for another oh, fifty or sixty years. Let Rebekah console him. Or one of those girls from the club he liked so much. That wasn't being fair, but Caroline just didn't want to think about how much she had hurt Tyler. How much she was continuing to hurt him.

The rest of the morning, they spent exploring their neighborhood. There was, indeed, a coffee shop nearby - one that sold every kind of sweet thing, including ice cream, which Caroline ordered in a bowl and then dumped an entire espresso on top of. Klaus made a face at her, but she only mocked his scone. "You just had to order the like, least American thing on the menu," she said.

But, as he quite reasonably pointed out, her ice cream was actually gelato.

Then they strolled the sunny streets, arm in arm, locating other places they might need. A small grocery store, a Duane Reade, a bookstore and - most interesting to Klaus - an art supply store that was open on a Sunday. He ordered many things, large and small, and asked for everything to be delivered to their new address.

"Oh, you guys live in the same building as Big John Dodd," the sales clerk commented. "We make deliveries there all the time. You with artWHEELS, too?"

"Klaus is," Caroline responded, squeezing Klaus's arm.

"Great, can you tell Annie to call us today? We have a shipment for her, but they are behind on payments for last month's supplies. I can't deliver anything else to them until they pay their bill."

Caroline looked up at Klaus with a pleading look. He shook his head. She squeezed his arm again. He sighed, and handed over his black Amex. "Add both months to my tab, mate. The lady insists." Klaus turned to Caroline. "What happened to keeping a lower financial profile, love?"

Caroline shrugged. "Not if they actually _need_ help. Can't ignore that."

"Of course, we can."

"Well, _I_ can't."

"That is why I find you to be such a miracle, Caroline. Because, of course - you can't."

They stopped by the grocery store for essentials, which to Caroline included a bottle of lavender lemonade and a block of chocolate, and then walked back to their sublet.

Soon after they returned to their apartment, the buzzer buzzed, and Klaus said, "Must be Carlos with our things. That was fairly quick."

Caroline stayed in the apartment, rearranging the furniture while he went downstairs. She might be a vampire, but she wasn't keen on doing five flights up and down again and again. Maybe the next time she needed to leave the apartment, she would do it out of the window. Much easier.

Klaus and a stern faced man in a black suit brought up two large suitcases and a big cardboard box. Klaus dismissed the man, and turned around to see that Caroline was already opening one of the suitcases.

"Was that Carlos? I wanted to meet him." Caroline looked up from the floor.

"No, that was Fitz. Carlos is traveling to the Berkshires with Elena. Apparently, she still needs a babysitter to make sure she doesn't slaughter the local populace."

"Oh, poor Elena. Oh, God- these are great," she said, going through the clothes Elena had sent her. "Her taste has gotten so much better now that she has a Mikaelson trust fund. Super cute purse. And she sent me a cell phone - yay! That makes me very happy. The other case must be yours."

"Yes," Klaus said, opening the cardboard box. "This is for you, though." He held up a jar of vervain, with a pair of thick gloves taped to the side. "I wonder which one of them does not trust me - my loving brother or his darling daughter?"

"Both, probably." She took the jar from him. "Oh, definitely Elena. The post-it is in her handwriting." The note read 'Please promise to take this every day! I love you -E'. The 'please' was underlined several times. "Also, I don't think Elijah and I are at the 'I love you' stage quite yet."

Caroline set the jar down on the floor. "Are there blood bags in there, too?"

"Yes, several. So, will you?"

"Will I what?"

"Take the vervain every day." Klaus looked at her steadily.

Caroline shook her head. "Of course not, don't be silly. Why would I?"

"Then you trust me."

Caroline met his eyes. "Yes."

"I have done nothing to earn that."

"You have. You are doing it right this second, just by being here with me, when you would so much rather be anywhere else. Besides, I know you."

Klaus nodded slowly, a strange look on his face. "I am going to make love to you now, Caroline."

"Oh." Caroline thought about that for a second, then she said, "Yes, please."

* * *

Even Mallory's sheets were high quality. Finding the richest person in the building had been a very good call on her part, Caroline thought, as she stretched out alongside Klaus, who was laying on his stomach after a fairly strenuous marathon of naked gymnastics.

She traced the muscles in his back with her fingernail, and then jumped as he twitched. "Oh, sorry. Thought you were dozing."

"Ah, and you felt that was the perfect opportunity to maul me with your claws, bobcat?" Klaus propped himself up on one elbow, and looked down at her.

"Right, like little ol' me could ever hurt big, tough you," Caroline said, with a small yawn.

"You could, you know." Klaus said to her, his eyes serious.

The world went still as Caroline met his gaze.

"How is that, exactly?" Caroline asked him, a little breathless.

"In twelve and a half days - if I fail you, and you decide to leave me."

"Oh, don't . . . Let's not. You are actually counting this down?"

"Fairly momentous for me, you know. I finally win you, only to have you threaten to abandon me, after all."

"It might not happen. You might not fail me, as you call it."

Klaus shook his head. "I can never live up to your expectations, Caroline. I am not so foolish as to think I can. It's just becoming harder as each hour passes to become reconciled to your leaving. But when it happens, I will be able to let you go, I think. Without too many casualties."

"This had better not be some kind, of . . . I don't know, emotional blackmail. God."

"It's not. You want me to be honest with you, love. So that's what I am being."

Caroline reached up, and pulled him back down to her. "Let's not talk," she whispered. "Let's not."

* * *

Their briefing with John and Annie several hours later was fairly uneventful. Klaus signed the contractor employee paperwork put in front of him with 'Klaus Michaels' and a slight grimace, but he made no actual protest. He also sat patiently while John expounded on art education theory and proper teaching methodologies. Annie gave them a large carton of supplies, and then went over the details of their upcoming schedule for the next couple of weeks. When she mentioned which bus lines they should take to reach their classes on Monday, Klaus shook his head.

"No, Fitz will be taking us in the car, and he can wait until the classes are over."

Caroline nudged him with her shoulder. Piper and Livia were behind her on the couch, and Piper was teaching Livia how to braid Caroline's hair. "Hold still!" Piper commanded. "Now it's all messed up."

"Sorry," Caroline told her, and then handed her a brush. "You can start over." She turned to Klaus. "Fitz is going to do what, now?"

"We are not taking buses all over the five boroughs, Caroline."

One look at his expression, and Caroline knew this one she wouldn't win. "Okay, okay, fine."

Annie and John exchanged a glance, and then Annie said, "And also . . . Allan from Stanley's called us, and told us that you cleared our accounts for two months. We just don't know what to say, Klaus."

"Caroline's idea entirely, I assure you."

John cleared his throat. He had been somewhat quiet throughout their discussion, only becoming animated when he was talking about teaching, but at this point he looked fairly uncomfortable. "Yes, but still - we thank you, friend. Both of you."

"We are not accustomed to having benefactors, as you can imagine. We scrape for every dime. And speaking of, it sounds like you don't need Metrocards? We normally subsidize them for the teachers."

"I guess not." Caroline put a hand on the back of her hair. "Oh, wow, girls. It feels like you did a really good job."

"A really good job of making a giant knot," Klaus murmured.

"Well, I think that is all then," Annie said.

John Dodd stood, and lifted his hands to the sky. "And now, we drink. Come, we are off to the biergarten."

"Nobody calls it that but him." Annie stood as well, putting Klaus's paperwork into a large manilla folder. "It's actually the Taproom, and it's just a few blocks away."

"One sec, and I'm ready," Caroline said, taking the brush back from Piper, and brushing the knots out of her hair. "Okay, let's go."

"I think the children and I are going to sit this one out, John. They had plenty of bohemian exposure last night."

"Fine, fine," John said. Caroline could swear that he was looking at Klaus when he said this, but he was addressing Annie. "You cuddle up and hold your children close, wife. Tell them stories of heroes and dragons and wing them softly to sleep."

"Yes, John. That's exactly what I am going to do. Have fun, guys. Don't let John keep you out all night long. He has class tomorrow, too."

As they about to set off into the Queen's evening, they met Tedrick and his girlfriend in the small linoleum lobby.

"More friends! Come, come," John put and arm around each of them, and started to usher Tedrick and Michelle out of the building.

"But we were just going home-" Tedrick began to say, and then he spotted Caroline. "Hi, best friend!" he said, waving happily at her. "Okay, let's all go."

Klaus looked down at Caroline, and took her hand. "You have to fix that, you now."

"Oh, I know. But it's just Tedrick. Harmless."

Klaus held her back, until John and his abductees were several steps ahead of them. "I'd like to amend our deal, Caroline."

"What? No. No take backs."

"Just a slight alteration. I give you the days, and you give me the nights."

"Wait - that actually sounds fine. You do mean something kinky, right?"

"No, love. I mean that at night, you turn yourself over to me, and I show you how our kind is meant to enjoy it."

It was definitely intriguing. Caroline had always had a suspicion that there was a whole vampire world out there that she was missing out on.

"Okay. Not every night though. I don't exactly have your stamina."

"Yet. But yes, I do understand. And I will need you . . . energetic, for my purposes. Every third night, let's say? But we are going out tonight, love."

"Mild mannered art teachers by day, wicked deviant vampires by night? Oh, I'm totally psyched for this. No killing, though, 'kay? I think you know where I stand on that by now."

"As you wish, Caroline."

"Do I need to draw any other lines in the sand? No mutilating, or maiming, or compelling people to kill each other, or to kill themselves, and no stealing really big ticket items, or causing mass hysteria, or setting fire to anything. Or anyone."

"Why, Caroline, I don't believe that you want us to have any fun at all."


	10. knee deep at the national pop league

The 'biergarten' was actually TJ's TapRoom, and it was already packed. As soon as they all walked in, however, a roar of "Big John!" came from the assembled masses, and a server came over and led them to a very long picnic table in a small cobblestone garden off the side of the bar.

John Dodd kissed the server on the cheek, and sent her away with a "Thanks kindly, Dottie. A round for everyone."

There were already several people seated at the table, chatting and drinking. One of them, a small man with large glasses, looked up as Caroline sat next to him. "Not Dottie. Daisy. I think?" He pushed his glasses up. "Maybe Delia? Yes." He bent back over a napkin that he was scribbling on.

John went to the head of the table, and waved a hand in the general direction of Caroline and Klaus. "Old friends, meet new friends! Caroline and Klaus - they are artists of life. Make them welcome, everyone."

Before Klaus even had a chance, Tedrick sat down on the other side of Caroline with a "Best friend! I've missed you!" and a big hug.

"Oh, okay," Caroline said, hugging him back. Michelle sat down beside Tedrick, and just rolled her eyes.

"I really don't get this at all. Teddy doesn't normally like people this much," Michelle said. "Well, Caroline, all settled in?"

"Yep, very much so. We love Mallory's place."

From his seat on John's left hand, and beside the small quiet man still scribbling away, Klaus responded, "That is perhaps too strong of a word, Caroline."

"Peter," The small man said, suddenly.

"Excuse me?" Caroline asked him. He never looked at her, just grabbed another napkin from the stack in front of him and kept scribbling.

"Peter. That's me. Yes. Um."

"Oh - hi, Peter. Nice to meet you."

"Nice, yes."

Caroline watched as Peter drew a very accurate portrait of her on the napkin.

"You. See? There it's you."

"Oh, how lovely. Klaus, look." Caroline pointed at the drawing. Klaus scowled at it.

"No, mate. Her cheek curves like this." Klaus took the pen from Peter's hand and sketched on a different napkin. "Here, see?"

"Right. Yes, I see," Peter said, his hand twitching from it's loss of the pen.

Caroline pulled another pen from her borrowed purse. "Here you are."

"Yes, thanks." Peter drew another picture of her quickly. "You."

"Yes, it's definitely me. I love it."

"Again, too strong of a word," Klaus said. He reached for another napkin, and also began to sketch her. She'd never seen him draw before, his hands so sure and confident, but with such a delicate touch. "These napkins are ridiculous. They keep tearing."

"We seem to have a competition here," John said in a booming voice. "Are we judging on quality, quantity or speed, gentlemen? Must warn you, Klaus, my favorite apostle here is a quick draw. A kiss to the winner, eh, fair Caroline?"

At Klaus's dark look, John amended that to, "Well, maybe not. So, Klaus, we never finished talking about Schiele and why you feel the other Vienna Seccessionists merely tolerated him."

"Ah, yes. I never said he wasn't a successful Seccessionist. He was, truly. Perhaps the only actual radical of the lot." Klaus turned away from his sketching, and Peter took that opportunity to snag his pen back.

"Before you start in on all of that, Father John - has there been any news?" Michelle cut in.

Several other people on their end of the table quieted their conversations, and turned towards John.

His face serious, John Dodd stroked his beard for a second. "No news, friends. Sorry to tell you that we still stand outbid and outplayed. The tide has not turned, we remain out to sea."

There were several groans, and then conversation around the table resumed.

"What was that about?" Caroline asked Michelle.

"Oh, just this real estate deal. There's a warehouse in Greenpoint that somebody was converting into these live/work spaces for artists. But the developer went bankrupt, and now the bank owns it. John and Annie have been trying to buy the building for months and months, but no luck. They want to house artWHEELS there, and have classrooms and a gallery space - and of course, places where some us could live and paint or whatever. Nice dream, but it's not going to happen."

"What a shame. It would be nice for the Dodds to get out of that tiny place they live, too."

"Well, you've seen the miniscule closet where Teddy and I live. We'd be the first to sign up."

Pitchers of beer were brought out by Dottie (Delia?), and Caroline downed a mug quickly. At Michelle's raised eyebrow, Caroline just shrugged. "Thirsty."

"Hope you are not a lightweight. These nights get pretty serious where the beer is concerned."

"No worries about that." Caroline nudged Tedrick. "No banjo tonight?"

"Do you want me to go get my banjo?" Tedrick asked, hopeful.

Michelle sighed, and put a hand on his arm. "Oh, let's not, Teddy. Just one night without, please."

Caroline tuned into some of the other conversations going on around the table. There was a cluster of people at the far end arguing about whether or not some guy named Dan Witz was taking a major step backwards from the hyperrealism of his mosh pit paintings now that he was doing the series of cell phone portraits. And just on the other side of Michelle, a jewelry designer was arguing with her drummer boyfriend about whether or not he could go on tour in Canada with his former band, which happened to feature his ex-girlfriend as the lead singer. They were leaning towards not.

Another man was extolling the virtues of cheese. Caroline wasn't sure she had heard correctly the first time, but it was definitely cheese he was talking about, specifically why it was easier to carve monuments and statues out of cheddar than Muenster. Apparently, the guy had just returned from a pilgrimage to Sarah Kaufmann's cheese carving studio in Wisconsin, and was planning a trip to the U.K. to visit with members of the Experimental Food Society to try his hand at crafting architectural jelly molds.

Peter was now doing quick napkin portraits of Klaus and John, capturing their hand gestures as they argued some point about Klimt's influence on Schiele's later works.

Klaus appeared to be enjoying himself. Protest as he would, with all of his Manhattan-centric snobbery, and his dismissal of the Dodd's messy family life, he _needed_ someone to argue with him and challenge him. Even if that someone was a human mayfly. Caroline had high hopes for John's influence over Klaus.

There was one scary moment, though, when she heard Klaus say, "Ah, yes. Wally Neuzil. Schiele's love for his Wally. He didn't deserve her for a second, not as a model, not as a lover. Wally was a work of art in her own right. Those angles, the way her joints fit together. Remarkable. She always had scrubby elbows, though, and she would insist on going barefoot everywhere. But that mouth! Tremendous in every way. Lips peaked like a mountain range, but she was a crude child and never said a thing that wasn't crass. Not a real redhead, of course, but then nobody really was in Vienna in those days."

Caroline held her breath, and looked at John, but it appeared that John was already off on a different tangent altogether, and the moment passed.

* * *

Caroline decided that this portion of the evening was over when Tedrick fell asleep on her shoulder. She tried to shrug him over into Michelle's lap - but Michelle, more than a bit tipsy, just shoved him back onto her with a laugh. "You're his new best friend. You get him home."

"Klaus?" Caroline said, turning towards him. "We had plans, right?"

"Ah, yes, of course. It's past time." Klaus stood, and waved down John's protests. "Sorry, mate. The lady has spoken. And she's far too beautiful tonight to waste on this drunken lot."

Caroline pushed Tedrick onto Michelle, saying, "He's all yours."

She stood up, just as Peter grabbed her wrist. He thrust a stack of napkins at her with his other hand. "Here. All you," he inclined his head towards Klaus, "and him. Lovely, yes."

"Thank you, Peter," said Caroline with a smile. She took the napkins and put them into her purse. "See you around?"

"Okay, yes."

Klaus put a hand on Caroline's back to guide her through the bar and to the front door. It had become quite crowded in the hours they had been there.

"The city that never sleeps, huh? I guess that's true," Caroline remarked, as they exited onto the sidewalk.

"This is not even the city, Caroline. I will show you the city." Klaus pulled out his phone, and checked his text messages. "Next time you speak to Damon Salvatore, tell him to stop texting me, love. It's becoming tedious. Maybe he thinks he can annoy me into bringing you back home."

"He just cares, that's all. Forgive me for having friends. So - which way to the subway? I'm completely turned around now."

Klaus laughed. "Don't be ridiculous. I'm never letting you near public transportation again. With my luck, you'll end up following a juggler home to Hoboken, and I will have two weeks to learn circus tricks to keep your affections."

"Oh, don't be mean."

"I sent a text to Fitz half an hour ago. He should be here - oh, yes. There he is."

"You timed that well," Caroline said, as she stepped into the sleek black town car after Klaus opened the door for her.

"I could tell by the droop of your new best friend's eyes, and the way he was listing, that you would need to be rescued soon." Klaus sat beside her, and then leaned up to Fitz, sitting in the front seat. "I believe you know where the Moroccan is, Fitz."

"Yes, Mr. Nikaus."

Caroline leaned up as well. "Fitz?"

"Yes, miss?"

"So what is the deal with this Carlos guy? I'm starting to think he's imaginary. Have you ever seen him?"

"Yes, miss. He's my boss."

"Oh, right."

"He's a scary motherfucker, miss."

"Oh." Caroline looked back at Klaus, who just smirked at her. She looked over at Fitz again. "How about you?"

"Pardon, miss?"

"Are you . . um, you know. Scary?"

"I'm a vampire, miss. I eat people."

"Yes, that's scary. But do you like . . . have any hobbies?"

"Besides eating people, miss?"

"Yes? Besides that?"

"Well, I like monster trucks."

"Racing them or watching them?"

"Building them, and then running over people with them. And then eating the people that I've run over," he paused, adding, "Miss."

"Oh. Right. Um, that's all."

Caroline sat back against the leather seat.

"Don't go looking for humanity among Elijah's people, Caroline. That's not what he pays them for," Klaus said, amused.

"But they are vampires."

"Yes, that's the point."

"No, I mean, why do they work for him at all? That's kind of the thing about being a vampire. You don't really have to have a job. See, want, take - right?"

"Ah, yes. But these vampires all owe Elijah a debt of some kind. They do get paid, yes, but they work in order to pay off their debt."

"And if they don't want to?"

"Are you forgetting that I, and my siblings, can compel other vampires? There is no refusing us. Few are willing to go the route you and your friends are, with the actual ingesting of vervain. Most vampires would never dream of drinking it voluntarily."

"Well, it's not fun, I can tell you that. Ugh."

"I don't imagine that it is. I almost admire your idiot friends for being brave enough to follow through with it. Masochistic enough, even. Although, I am quite hurt that they feel they need to."

Caroline realized that they were heading for a bridge. "Oh, a bridge, finally. I've been in this city long enough."

"The Queensboro Bridge. Not one of the prettier ones, I'm afraid. Nothing very notable about it."

"I don't care. It's pretty enough for me. Back in olden times, how did you guys get around this place before the bridges and tunnels were built?"

"We didn't. I can recall taking a boat into Manhattan a few times, and then we pretty much just remained there. Haven't spent a lot of time outside the actual city."

"Really? I would never have guessed. What about other people? People who weren't as snobby as you?"

"I have no idea, Caroline. You give me too much credit for knowing what other people do."

"Stuck up, pretentious, arrogant . . . " Caroline looked at him, the way the lights from the bridge were creating slanted shadows on his face. She sighed. "But you are lovely, too. I'm falling hard for you, you know. No rhyme or reason to it. Just falling and falling. Can't seem to stop."

He caught her in his gaze. "Do you want to?"

"Stop? I should, maybe. I need to be more careful about my heart, and I know that."

"That's not the advice I would give you. I would say that you need to let go."

"Well, the longer I am away from Mystic Falls, the harder it is for me to remember why I shouldn't fall for you."

"Then we will stay away from there forever."

Caroline laughed. "You're funny. I can imagine that phone call going over well with my mom. Or with Damon."

"Damon Salvatore presumes too much."

"Oh, leave him be. I like that my friends care, remember? I realize that means nothing to _you, _since you have no friends."

"I have had friends, Caroline. You imagine that I am incapable of that, but I am not."

"Are you capable of that? Really? Because I have only known you as the lonely one, Klaus. A man so lonely that he has to force loyalty from his hybrids, who has to box up his family to keep them from leaving him."

"Enough, Caroline," Klaus said. He looked out the window, away from her, and she could see weariness on his face, in his profile. Caroline moved closer to him. She turned his face with her hand.

"Has the day come yet?" she asked him, forcing him to meet her eyes. "Are you at least a little less lonely when you are with me?"

"A little less, perhaps."

"Well, that is enough for now," Caroline said softly, and she kissed him.

* * *

The Moroccan did turn out to be a vampire club, which is what Caroline was expecting. It was not, however, very Moroccan at all.

They were escorted to a side door, after Fitz had left the car to have a quick word with the bouncer. When Caroline shot Klaus a questioning look, he just shrugged and said, "Privileges."

Given the way the people waiting in line were dressed, Caroline was very glad that she had decided to wear one of Elena's dresses. It was a casual halter neck dress in a soft peach, but at least it was Miu Miu.

The club was very dark inside, naturally, but the beaded curtains and floor pillows and belly dancers that Caroline had expected from the name did not materialize. Everything was sleek and modern and a little dull. Flashing colored lights, of course, but the walls and floors were a shiny, steel gray. The furniture was all varying shades of gray as well. Caroline was so busy noting the decor, that she failed entirely to also notice that the section of the club near their door had gone nearly silent when they walked in.

Klaus had one hand on her waist, and he held up the other one. He said, with a smile, to the vampires watching them, "Please, carry on."

Conversation resumed, but there was much murmuring and side glances. Their escort showed them to a secluded table on a raised dais. "Mr. Klaus, we hope you will not be disturbed."

"Yes, you had better hope that," Klaus smiled at the young man, who cleared his throat, and then backed away into the crowd.

Caroline was beginning to feel uncomfortable with all of the staring and whispering around them. She heard the phrase 'the hybrid Klaus' and the phrase 'the Lord Niklaus' both mentioned several times. "Does everyone know you here? I thought you generally kept a lower profile than this."

"I am known in many circles, yes. This is one of them where I am legend. Where I am king."

Before mounting the steps to the dais where their table was, Klaus turned suddenly and shot out his arm. He pulled a guy out of the crowd, a guy that had been trying to vamp speed to the door.

"Alonzo. It's been a long time."

"Yes, Mr. Klaus. Lo-long time."

"Did you not know I was in town? Surely, you did not."

"No, Mr. Klaus. I didn't know." Alonzo swallowed hard, and Caroline saw his eyes dart around quickly.

Klaus let go of the man's arm, to wrap his hand around his throat instead. Alonzo's eyes were soon almost popping out of his skull. Klaus slowly raised him off the floor and held him in the air.

"Klaus!" Caroline said with a hiss. "What the fuck. Seriously!"

"No concern of yours, love. Alonzo and I simply have a score to settle," Klaus said, still maintaining eye contact with Alonzo, whose feet now dangled well above the floor.

Caroline pulled at his arm. "Come on, no. Lines in the sand, remember? You are going to make me sorry that I came with you."

Klaus took a deep breath. He jerked Alonzo to him, and then said, "You will leave this place. You will never return to it. You will never speak my name to anyone, ever. And you will never take an easy breath again, you little bastard."

Klaus released Alonzo, and the vampire fell to the ground. The murmurs and side glances in the club increased exponentially, and several other vampires discreetly exited the club.

Klaus turned to Caroline and offered her his arm. "Shall we?"

They mounted the dais, and sat down at their table. There was a curved wall of frosted glass that separated their table from the rest of the club. No windows anywhere, of course. Caroline realized there was something else different about a vampire nightclub as well. The music was playing very low, adjusted for super hearing. It was a nice feature.

The man who had escorted them stepped forward with a drink list. "May I recommend the '83 today?"

"Excellent," Klaus said, only glancing over the list before handing it back. "We'll start with that."

"So what did he do?" Caroline asked.

"Who?"

"The guy you almost strangled, of course, Alonzo. Why did you want to kill him?"

"If I had wanted to kill him, he would be dead. I had no such intentions."

"Well, what did he do to make you want to nearly kill him?"

"He scratched my car. In 1978."

"Wait, what? Are you joking with this?"

"Why would I joke about that?"

"Was this when you were living in Greece?"

"Yes. Alonzo was my driver in Corfu. It was his responsibility to maintain my vehicles. He failed in his duty."

"Oh, for God's sake."

"The car in question was a Maserati Bora, Caroline. Brand new. One of the last ever made. I hadn't even driven it yet."

"You are unbelievable. Seriously."

Luckily for Klaus, their server returned at that moment accompanied by a blonde woman. The server nodded, and left the woman standing at their table.

"Um, is she our other waitress? How many servers do we need?" Caroline asked Klaus in a whisper.

Amused, Klaus said, "No, love. She's our drink. The '83 I ordered."

"Oh, right. Oh, wait - how is this different from that terrible place in Richmond that I kept yelling at Tyler about?"

"It's not. Not really. More expensive, definitely."

"Wow," Caroline looked at the woman, who stood there with a dazed expression. "I am such a hypocrite. What a strange thing to realize about yourself."

"You did want to go on a journey of self discovery, Caroline." Klaus stood and took the woman by the arm. He gently sat her down between himself and Caroline, and then he sat down again. "Would you like to go first?"

"Maybe we do it together? Not killing her, though, right?"

"I did not forget that, love. Although, not killing her will be considered rude behavior at this club. And yes, together."

Caroline took an arm, while Klaus focused on the woman's neck.

The woman's blood had obviously been spiked with something wonderful, because Caroline felt a heady rush almost immediately. There were lights and explosions behind her eyes, and Caroline moaned.

"Easy, love," Klaus whispered, raising his head slightly. "Easy, bobcat."

"Mmmm, yes. Easy," Caroline said, with another moan. She left the woman's arm, and began to nibble on her exposed shoulder, making little bites and then licking up the blood that dribbled. "God, so good."

She found the woman's neck, and feasted. Nothing had ever been this tasty to her. Not birthday cake when she was a kid, not her first ever frappucino, not her first human kill. Nothing ever. Whirligigs and ferris wheels and spinning tops. Her head was spinning, spinning.

"Caroline," Klaus said softly. "Caroline, love. Kill her if you want to, but make sure you are making the decision to do so."

"Hmmmmm. What?" Caroline asked, as she raised her mouth from the woman's neck.

The woman was limp.

"Oh, God. Did I?"

Klaus felt the woman's other wrist. "Afraid so, love."

"Oh, God. Oh, God." Caroline could feel the blood dripping from the edge of her mouth. Klaus took his thumb, and wiped it off for her. Caroline looked down, where there was still just a few drops pooling on her dress. "Oh, God. I didn't mean to."

"I know you didn't."

"You should have stopped me," Caroline said, with an accusing tone, on the brink of tears. "This is not okay."

"Shhhh, sweetheart. I'm sorry, love. I should have realized how it would affect you, but I didn't in time. My fault."

Caroline stared down at the woman, whose head was slumped onto their table. "I'm definitely freaking out now. This is not real."

Klaus raised a hand, and waved over an attendant. He indicated the dead woman. "We have finished with this one. Bring us another. And a bottle of Perrier-Jouet '28"

"What?" Caroline raised her eyes to him. "What did you just say?"

The attendant pulled the woman away from the table, and carried her off.

"You must learn to do this properly, Caroline. It just takes some practice. The women here have ingested a special herb. It has no effect on the human, but it is a powerful intoxicant for vampires. Kol discovered it in South America a very long time ago."

"But you . . . does it affect you?"

"Not in the way it does you, apparently. Just a mild pleasantness for me. It adds to the overall experience, but it doesn't overwhelm me."

"For me . . . for me it was like every carnival in the world was happening inside me."

"Marvelous, wasn't it?"

"Yes. Oh, God. It really was."

"The champagne will alter the affects of the drug this time. It should make it easier for you to stay in control."

"I can't. I can't do it again."

"Yes, you will, Caroline. You are turning your nights over to me, remember?"

Caroline's hands were shaking, and she laid them on the table to steady them. "I just _killed_ someone."

"Yes, you did," Klaus said, gently. He covered her hands with his. "You are a vampire, and it was an accident. You have no idea how much you impress me, Caroline. Your control is remarkable, especially for one as new as you are. But you must find your limits and test that control."

"Is that why you brought me here? To teach me a lesson?"

"No, I brought you here because I wanted to show you what vampires do at night in the city. How we enjoy it."

"Well, the way you enjoy it sucks. People die."

"Yes, in general they do. But this one does not have to." Their server put the bottle of champagne on the table with two glasses, and Caroline looked up to see another blonde woman standing there.

"Right," Caroline said, taking a deep breath. "This one won't die."

Klaus popped the cork on the champagne, and handed her the whole bottle. "Here. Drink as much of this as you can."

Caroline tipped the bottle down her throat. It was golden and light and delicious. She set the bottle down when she had emptied it. Then, with some deliberateness, she took the woman by the arm, and pulled her into her lap.

"I will hold you, Caroline. If you begin to feel overwhelmed, I will stop you this time. I promise."

Caroline nodded. She was already remembering the amazing taste of the last woman. This one smelled equally divine. She could feel Klaus up against her back, as he held onto her bare shoulders, lightly caressing them. She moved aside the woman's long curls, and sank her teeth into the woman's neck.

The lights exploded again. Swirling colors and everything bubbling over inside her. Caroline moaned against the woman's neck, and she heard Klaus say, as though from a very long distance away, "Careful, love."

Spinning and spinning, around and around. She drank deeply, until she felt Klaus's fingers pressing against her shoulders. "Now, my darling. Let her go, now."

And so she did. She released the woman, even though it was physically painful to do so.

Caroline could tell that the woman was still alive, although unconscious. She felt triumph flooding into her. She could do this.

"More," she said, with a gasp. "Can I have more?"

Klaus laughed. "Yes, of course," he said, snapping his fingers. "Waiter, another for the lady."

* * *

Caroline cried in the town car on their way back to Queens. She cried all the way over the Queensboro Bridge. Klaus held her, as she cried, and she let him kiss the tears from her face.

And when she was done, she clutched at him, saying, "It's okay. I'll be okay."

"Will you?"

"Yes. I know now. I'm going to be okay."

"You don't hate me, Caroline, for taking you there?"

She shook her head, fiercely. "Hush. Just please. . . hush and kiss me. Make me forget."

Fitz pulled the car over, and parked it. He sat on the hood, smoking a cigarette, while Klaus did his very best to make Caroline forget.


	11. i will follow you into the dark

"Oh, God what have I done?" Caroline asked, with a groan.

Ten minutes into their very first art class at P.S. 150 in Queens, and there were already three kids in the back row sobbing quietly. Caroline passed out some tissues.

"Remove that abomination from your mouth!" Klaus roared at a child who was chewing gum. That required two more tissues, one for the gum removal and one for the subsequent tears.

"Miss Mallory never yells at us like that," a different kid complained.

"There is no more Miss Mallory. I ate her. I'm the Big Bad Wolf, children," Klaus said, with a small wicked smile.

"Oh, God, Oh, God," Caroline murmured.

"I ate her up with my sharp teeth and a giant spoon, and she was delicious. She tasted like melons and pomegranates. You will never see her again. So, there is no more Miss Mallory, there is only me. And you _will_ call me sir. Otherwise, I shall use my spoon on you_._"

"Uh, yes, sir."

And then Klaus turned to the blackboard, and started to draw anatomical models on it.

Caroline cleared her throat.

"Yes, love?" Klaus said politely, turning around to face her.

"Ooooh! 'Yes, love'," a boy snickered. "Oooh, she's your love. You've got a girlfriend."

Klaus walked over to the boy's desk, and put a hand on either side of it. He picked the desk up, and turned it upside down and slammed it back on the floor the wrong way up. He took his hands off the desk. "She is Miss Forbes to you, human child," he said, very softly. The whole classroom went very quiet. "Any other comments?"

"N-no."

"No, what?"

"No, sir?"

"That is correct. Yes, Caroline? You wanted to say something?"

"Just pointing out that these are _fourth graders._ That's all. Maybe the anatomy lesson is a bit much? Not to mention the um, yelling?"

Klaus looked out over the classroom full of nine year olds. "Hmmm. Yes, perhaps you are right. They could not possibly have the cerebral capacity to grasp a life model demonstration. They look like a fairly dim group, too."

"Oh, geez," Caroline said. "Well, then why don't you try something from the supply box? Maybe some watercolors or something? I know there are some in there."

"Excellent idea. Please, make that happen."

Caroline went into their carton of supplies, and then handed out watercolors and paper. Now this was something the children were familiar with. They lined up obediently at the sink in the back of the room to fill their water trays, every one of them keeping an eye on Klaus as they did so.

He sat on the edge of the teacher's desk, watching Caroline as she busied herself making sure everyone had what they needed, and as she turned the no-longer-snickering boy's desk the right way up again. Once the children were all back in their seats, several of them raised their hands.

"Ahem," Caroline said, as Klaus continued to ignore the raised hands.

"What? Oh, yes. You, there. Yes, the small human child with the snot bubble coming out of your nose. No, the other small human child. Equally snotty. Caroline, some more tissues, I think?"

"Uh, you didn't tell us what to paint. Sir."

"You have to be told what to paint? Are you robots or artists?"

"Um . . ."

"Answer me!"

The child started to cry.

"Oh, for . . . " Klaus sighed. "Do you children not have an ounce of imagination? What is wrong with these learning factories that they turn out whimpering, snot nosed, empty headed-"

"Klaus!"

He sighed again. "Yes, love?"

"They are _children._"

"Right. Of course. Fine. Paint apples, children. Paint lovely pictures of shiny red apples. Will that do, my darling Caroline?"

"Thank you," Caroline said to him. "That will do."

Klaus spent the rest of class walking up and down the aisles making comments on the artwork. "Derivative. You are clearly copying the apple of your neighbor. Start again."

"No, no. That is mediocre coloring. Is your apple to have no depth? No weight? Throw it away."

"That is not even a fruit, child. That is a nightmare rendered in red."

At the end of the hour, the children seemed to be relieved to hear the bell ring. As they filed out the door, Caroline overheard one boy ask another boy, "Why do you think he keeps calling us 'human children' ?"

"Well, we are, aren't we?" the other one responded, reasonably.

Caroline took the apple paintings, and begin to hang them up on the bulletin boards. She ignored Klaus as she did so.

"Caroline? My dearest, most beautiful Caroline?"

"Not speaking to you."

"Ah, Caroline. You knew this was going to be a bad idea. And yet, you insisted."

"I thought you would at least try!" she said, spinning around to face him. "God, how hard is it to be _civil_ to a room of children for one hour?"

"They are all morons. Tiny, sniveling morons. I have no patience for them."

"Well, _obviously._ And they are not morons, they are just kids. Weren't you ever a kid?"

Klaus was silent.

Caroline said, with a sigh, "There has to be a better way. You can't just bark and growl at them."

"I don't know what you would have me do, Caroline."

"Listen, you were going to teach me all kinds of art history, right? I was enjoying everything you were telling me about Greek bronzes at Park Avenue. You are actually a great teacher when you want to be. Maybe with the next class, you could try doing a lecture? Just pretend you are talking to me, and only me. There aren't any kids here at all, just me, and you want me to learn these things so I can share your appreciation for them. Do you think that might work?"

Klaus nodded. "I can try that. I had many things planned to show you."

"Good. And we are also going to try _not _making anybody else cry. Because I totally just ran out of Kleenex."

* * *

The next class, sixth graders this time, went somewhat better. Klaus used the chalkboard to show the students four stages of Greek sculpture: Geometric, Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic. He sketched examples of each kind for them, spending lavish amounts of time on his drawing of The Winged Victory of Samothrace. Caroline used hand signals to let him know when he needed to dumb everything down - for both her, and the kids. He mostly ignored them, but it still made her feel useful.

She had a hard time focusing on the lecture herself, partly because she was still muzzy from her excesses at the Morroccan, and partly because she couldn't help but remember that the last time she had watched Klaus explain Greek sculpture to her, he had been naked and the results had been most satisfying. She was a little afraid that art history was always going to be a turn on for her. Oh, well, there were stranger things to develop a fetish for.

At the end of class, the kids may have seemed a little bored, but at least nobody was crying.

Caroline gave Klaus two thumbs up and a big smile after the last student left the classroom. "So much better. And I learned so much."

"Did you really?" Klaus asked her, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "I may have glossed over several developments in the Archaic period."

"No, no, I thought it was great. Really great."

"Hmmm. What ages are we doing tomorrow? I'd like to tackle Japanese woodblock prints. I could have Fitz bring _Carp Leaping Up A Cascade _with him in the morning. I really wanted to show that to you. But not if the children are still at that grubby stage of life. No snot on my Hokusai, if you please."

"I think that's a fantastic idea. We are doing 7th graders in the morning, and 8th graders after lunch, all at the same school in Brooklyn, so that should be perfectly age appropriate. Fitz could bring all kinds of things from your place."

"Yes. Remind me to make a list. The younger children might benefit from seeing my Jasper Johns. And if we do this class again, I could bring in several bronzes."

"Okey doke. Sounds like a plan." Caroline took his hand in hers. "See? I knew you would be a great teacher."

"I think you are overstating the case, Caroline. Although, I do appreciate your enthusiasm."

"Who knows, maybe you'll want to stay here and teach art to snotty human children for the next forty or fifty years."

Klaus laughed. "I will teach you for the next forty or fifty years, and even longer. Wonderful things, if you will let me."

"We'll see," Caroline said with a smile. "We'll just have to see."

* * *

The art supplies Klaus had ordered were waiting on them in the vestibule when they returned to their apartment building. He was like a kid at Christmas, and it made Caroline happy to see him happy. He started work almost immediately on preparing a large canvas in Mallory's studio space by the window in the bedroom.

After he had it prepped, he stalked around the small space considering it. "The light in this room is fairly good, but I could use a skylight right here," he mused.

Caroline commented, "Yes, that would be great. But it's kind of difficult to pop a skylight in when a, you don't own the building and b, there's a roof deck right above us."

"True."

He seemed pretty absorbed in what he was doing, so Caroline gave him a quick kiss, and left to go down and see what Annie and the children were up to.

Downstairs, Annie and the kids were in the vestibule just about to head out to the grocery store.

"Oh, the kids are out of school already? That's nice."

"No, we homeschool. I would never trust those idiots in Albany to decide how to educate my children. I'm glad we ran into you, actually. Can you walk with us? I do want to talk to you."

"Sure." Caroline scooped up Livia, and settled her on her hip. "Hey there, baby girl, you look like you need a belly tickle. Yep, I'll come. Got nothing better to do while Klaus is painting."

They set out, and almost immediately, Piper and Little John started arguing over who was going to push the child sized shopping cart they were bringing with them.

"Children, stop that," Annie said, sharply. "We can really only fit a few potatoes and maybe an avocado in there, but it makes them feel useful," she said to Caroline. "So, anyway, I got this strange call from the principal at P.S. 150 - Piper, no!"

Piper had just swung the wire cart into Little John's face, and his nose was now bleeding. He sat down on the sidewalk and began to cry. There wasn't a lot of blood, but it was enough to send Caroline's senses reeling.

"Oh, God." Caroline was not sure whether she should stop breathing altogether, or just breathe more deeply. "Oh, God."

Livia took her thumb out of her mouth and said, "Red, red blood. Brother all bloody, bloody."

Annie pulled tissues and a tampon out of her purse quickly, and knelt down on the sidewalk beside her son. "That was not acceptable behavior, Piper, and you know that. Breathe through your mouth, Little John." Annie pulled the tampon apart and put a piece of it in each of Little John's nostrils as he whimpered. Annie mopped up the blood that had run onto his chin, and then tossed the tissues into a nearby trash can. Annie looked up at Caroline. "Oh, dear, are you okay?"

"Just - just blood makes me . . . you know."

"Oh, right. John is the same way. Here, sit down." Annie stood up and took Livia from Caroline, as Caroline sank to the ground a few feet away from Little John, and started to breathe as evenly as she could. She was _not_ going to eat the child. She was _not_. She covered her eyes with her hands, as she felt them go veiny and vampy.

"Little John is prone to nosebleeds. He starts up if you just look at him funny. However, that is not an excuse, Piper. Apologize to your brother."

"Sorry," Piper mumbled, staring at the ground.

"Like you mean it, Piper."

"I'm sorry."

"Are you going to be okay?" Annie asked Caroline. Caroline took another deep breath, and then removed her hands.

"Yes, I'm okay."

"You really don't look so good. Do you need to go back inside?"

"No, I'm fine. Really." Caroline stood up, dusted off her dress, and reached out to take Livia back into her arms. Another deep breath, and then she felt well enough to say, "See? All better. Clever trick with the tampon up the nose."

"It's a mom thing, I guess. Keep your head back all the way to the store, Little John. It'll stop in a minute, it always does." Annie took the wire cart away from Piper, and left it beside the front door to their building. "If someone decides to take that before we get back, it'll be all your fault, Piper. And I won't buy you a new one."

"Okay," Piper mumbled, looking at her mother and then looking away.

They all started walking again, with Little John tilting his head back and trying to avoid telephone poles and bumps in the uneven sidewalk as he did so.

"Anyway, as I was saying, Caroline, I got this call from the principal at the school you guys were at this morning, and he said. . . well, he said that a student told him that Klaus called himself the Big Bad Wolf, and threatened to eat the children. I'm assuming that it didn't happen _exactly_ like that, though. Kids come up with the strangest things."

"Oh, yeah. No, it wasn't exactly like that." Caroline shifted Livia to her other side, and then reached out a hand to grab Annie's arm so she could make eye contact. "It was all a misunderstanding. You have no worries about Klaus in the classroom and how he handles children. You think he's doing a great job."

"Although, really, I have no worries about Klaus. I know he's doing a great job."

"Yep, glad you feel that way," Caroline said with a smile, as she let go of Annie and they continued on their way.

Piper looked up at Caroline curiously. "What did you just do to my mom? With your eyes?"

"Hmmm? I have no idea what you are talking about, sweetie," Caroline said.

"You know, your eyes went wide and then you said stuff."

"They did? Huh. I guess my eyes just go wide sometimes. Maybe I should have brought my sunglasses."

"I didn't even notice that," Annie remarked. "How strange."

* * *

Grocery shopping with kids was a whole new adventure for Caroline. Everything took three times longer than it usually did, and Livia, it turned out, was totally a runner. Every time Caroline put her down to pick something else up, Livia took off and had to be chased. It was exhausting even for someone with vampire endurance. When they were finally finished, the kids started to clamor to be allowed to go play at the playground a couple of blocks away.

"No, kids, we have to bring these groceries home. And I have to start dinner, because your dad will be home from his class at the Y soon," Annie said, shaking her head.

"I can do that," Caroline volunteered. "Just tell me what you need."

"Really? Because I think they do need to get some of this energy out. Our backyard isn't big enough for them to do a lot of running around during the day. If only we could close on that place in Greenpoint . . . anyway, you couldn't take all of this yourself. It's too much."

Caroline laughed. "I totally can. Stronger than I look, see?" She set Livia down, and took the bags from Annie instead. "Not a problem. And what can I do about dinner?"

"Oh, wow. If you could just start some water boiling and dump the pasta in there, that would be great. I'm only going to let them play for twenty minutes or so, and then I can come home and do the sauce and seitanballs."

"I don't know what those are, and I'm probably grateful for that."

"Probably so. They are dreadful, but I have to sneak protein in wherever I can. And - well, never mind."

"No, seriously, what is it?"

"I hate to ask yet another thing of you, but Mallory was going to watch the kids for us tonight. Our real estate agent wants to meet with me and John to show us a warehouse in Queens that she thinks might work for us even better than the one we have been trying to buy in Greenpoint. It's even more out of our price range, though, so I should probably just cancel."

"You don't have to, we can watch the kids for you. It'll be fun."

"Well, I doubt that 'fun' is the word your boyfriend would use. Originally, I was going to ask you guys to babysit because I thought you might need the money. But obviously-"

"Oh, yeah, no worries on that. Klaus has . . . well, family money, I guess you'd say."

"So I gathered. That was some car that picked you up this morning, with a driver and everything."

"Yeah, it's just, you know, more convenient than the bus. So, take the groceries home and start the pasta . . . anything else? And then you guys need us at what time tonight?"

"I can't believe how sweet you are. It was really just a godsend when you walked into our lives, right when Mallory decided to flake on us. Oh, wait- you need these." Annie fished her keys out of her purse and slid them into one of the bags Caroline was carrying. "The one that says 'Schlage' opens the door. But you know that, of course. As for tonight, we are scheduled to take a look at that place with our realtor at seven, so could you come over at 6:30? The kids will have been fed, and they will have had their baths. They generally go to bed between eight and nine, but we should be back by 8:30 at the latest. And really, if Klaus doesn't want to do this, or if he wants you to do something else tonight instead, just let me know. I have no problems canceling, honestly. But John wants to pursue every avenue."

"I can understand that. Don't worry about Klaus, he just loves your kids. See you later!"

Caroline enjoyed the walk back to the apartment building. The sun was still shining, the birds were still singing, blue skies above the buildings, and everyone she encountered on the sidewalks seemed far friendlier than she had thought folks would be in New York. The weather was a trifle warm, but that didn't bother her at all, obviously. And Piper's little shopping cart was still leaning up against the steps into the building. What a great world it is when nobody steals a child's toy. Well, maybe that's the very minimum standard for civilized behavior, but it still seemed to Caroline that this was a wonderful neighborhood full of wonderful non-thieving people.

Her mood came crashing down, however, when she opened the door to the apartment lobby to find Klaus sitting on the stairs with his head in his hands.

"Hey, you. What's wrong?"

Klaus looked up, his face bleak. "Where have you been?"

"Grocery shopping with Annie and the kids. Why? Did something happen?"

"You were gone."

"Yeah, for like a couple of hours. Not a big deal."

"Not a big deal?" Klaus repeated, deliberately. "Not a big deal. I looked everywhere, and you were gone. And it's not as though I could reach you, Caroline."

"Oh, right, because I didn't take my purse and phone with me. Didn't I tell you I was heading downstairs? I could have sworn I said something."

"I was going to paint you, but you had just vanished." Klaus stood up slowly. "You were there with me in the flat, and then you were gone, all of your things just sitting there. You said _nothing_ to me before leaving."

He came in front of her, and said, softly, "This is unacceptable, Caroline."

"Seriously?" Caroline snorted. "Do you hear yourself right now? _Unacceptable. _What is 'unacceptable' is you throwing a hissy just because I went out with the neighbors and did something without you. Whatever, I don't have time for this. If you want to continue nagging at me, you can help me put these groceries away."

She brushed past him to the Dodds' door, and set the grocery bags down so she could find the keys and unlock it. Klaus stood very close behind her, and she could feel the agitation radiating from him. This was ridiculous.

Caroline spun around to face him, the keys still in her hands. "Fine. Just say whatever it is you are going to say. But I am warning you, I do _not_ take kindly to the possessive boyfriend routine. There is no leash on me, and I am not one of your hybrids."

"Anything could have happened. You could have left me. You could have been taken from me. You could have been _dead_, Caroline." Klaus's voice dropped to a whisper. "You could have been dead."

"Hey," Caroline shook her head. "What is all this? I'm not that easy to kill, in case you hadn't noticed."

There was agony on his face, a pain that made her catch her breath. Realization dawned on Caroline. "Oh. But I _can_ die, and that's the point, isn't it? You can't, but I can. And I probably will someday. Did that just hit you?"

A shudder ran through Klaus. "Yes. You will die someday."

"Oh, wow, this is like the cheeriest conversation ever. Just because I _can_ die, doesn't mean that I _am_ dead every time I'm not in your general vicinity, you know. There's no need to go straight to the most morbid possibility just because you don't know where I am."

"You don't exactly have the best track record." Klaus took a deep breath. "It was not so long ago that I had to rescue you from your former history teacher."

"True, and that was the third time I had been captured and tortured in a twelve month period. So yeah, I'll grant you that I'm a bit of a danger magnet. But I'm fine now. Nothing happened to me."

Klaus took her by the shoulders, and rested his forehead against hers. She brought her hands up to his neck, and they stood there, quietly for a second. Klaus whispered to her, "You are so fragile, so easily crushed. Any random human on the street could pick up a piece of wood, and end your life. Then what would I do? How would I follow you?"

"It's not going to happen like that."

"Promise me you will take your phone with you from now on, Caroline. Promise me that you will never leave me without a word. Promise me that you won't vanish from my life completely. Even after this is over, and you leave me to go back to your mother and your idiot friends - I still have to know if you are safe."

"I promise," Caroline said, and pressed a small kiss against his lips. "And stop calling my friends 'idiots'."

He let her go, and stepped back. "Someday, you will tell me about those other two times you were captured so I can make those responsible pay."

"Well, I was captured four times, if we are counting the time _you_ had me tied up in the werewolf cellar to be sacrificed." He opened his mouth, and she held up a hand. "I know, I know. Forgiven and all that. But as for those other times, the people have already paid, trust me."

"It shall never happen again. There is nothing I would not to do to protect you," Klaus said, grimly.

"Well, protection might not be necessary - but keep that helpful spirit in mind because I'll need you to be extra sweet and nice tonight when you and I are babysitting."

"Wait, what?"

"Hmmm . . . yeah, I wasn't sure when to mention that exactly. Hope you have some bedtime stories saved up for just such an occasion." She turned back to the door into the Dodds' apartment and unlocked it. Klaus picked up the grocery bags and followed her inside.

"I assume you are joking, Caroline."

"Nope, not a bit." She looked back at his face, and saw the distaste on it. "Oh, fine. You don't have to help. You can stay upstairs doing whatever it is you want to do to that lovely canvas. I can handle the kids on my own."

"If you think I am going to let you out of my sight . . . wait, what are we doing here?"

"Putting groceries away, and starting dinner."

"Why?" Klaus set the bags down on the the counter in the kitchen, and watched as Caroline pulled a pot down from the pot rack and filled it with water at the sink. She set it on the stove, and turned the heat on.

"Because the kids are going to come home hungry, and they will need to be fed. Can you find the box of pasta in the bags, please?"

He handed her the box, and she put it down on the counter. "The other stuff all needs to be put away. It looks like they keep the fruit in that bowl over there, so that's where you can put the apples and kiwis. Or do kiwis need to be refrigerated? I honestly don't know. Won't hurt them to sit in a bowl until Annie returns, though. Oh, and give me the oatmeal and the bread, I'm guessing they go over here in the pantry."

"You are not this woman's servant, Caroline."

"Wow, really? That's what you get from this? It has nothing to do with that. Is there anything in that bag that looks like it might be called 'seitan'? I have zero clue as to what that is, but Annie is using it in dinner tonight and I want to leave it out for her."

When Klaus just stood there, looking at her, Caroline sighed, and started pulling the food out of the bags herself. "Haven't you ever been somebody's neighbor before? It's what you do. People help each other. It's all kinds of normal, you know. And that is what we are doing here, being normal."

"This is not normal for our kind."

"Well, maybe it should be, did you ever think of that? Maybe if 'our' kind were a little more like everyone else, we wouldn't kill so casually." Caroline suddenly stopped, and gripped the laminate countertop. "Oh, I'd almost forgotten the woman from last night. Oh, God. Just for a minute or two, I had forgotten."

"Caroline -" Klaus began, softly.

She shook her head, and let go of the counter. She pulled a box of oatmeal from the bag, and opened the pantry to put it away. "It's fine. Everything is fine."

Klaus picked up a loaf of bread and handed it to her to put in the pantry. "We'll do this your way, Caroline. The domesticity, the _helping_, the neighborly thing. But tonight, after we are through being neighbors, I am taking you back into the city."

"Klaus, no. I'm not ready to go back there. No more vampire nightclubs. Not for awhile."

"The entire city is not a vampire nightclub. Well, it can be - but only in a metaphorical sense, not a literal one. Trust me, Caroline. It will not be like last night."

"I don't know. We were out all night long, and I didn't sleep at all. At some point I am bound to get tired."

Klaus came up behind her, and wrapped his arms around her. She leaned against him, feeling the rangy length of his body against her back. He nuzzled her neck, and whispered in her ear, "Trust me, Caroline."

Oh, the heat of him. It was always her undoing. "Yes," she whispered back. "I do." She turned in his arms. "I'll go anywhere with you, and you know it."

"I'll keep that in mind, Caroline, the next time I try to make you give up this ridiculousness in Queens. We could be in Rome or Tokyo or Monte Carlo by tomorrow. You did say anywhere."

Caroline laughed. "Nice try, buddy, but we have class to teach in the morning. In Brooklyn. Now shut up, and let me go, so I can dump the pasta in. The water's boiling."


	12. marching bands of manhattan

Piper leaned against Caroline's shoulder on the bed the girls shared, as Caroline read aloud from a book about pirates. "And Captain Kidd fought off the crocodile with the wooden stump from his leg, and shouted, 'Arrrr, you'll never eat me other leg, matey!' Everyone jumped when a gun went off with a loud 'Bang!'. The first mate Petey had shot the crocodile with a blunderbuss. And Captain Kidd declared-"

"Captain Kidd," Klaus snorted, from where he was sitting on Little John's bed, a sketch book on his lap, charcoal in his hand. He had been sketching Caroline from the minute they had arrived to take care of the children. In the kitchen, he sketched her making the kids a snack. In the bathroom, he sketched her helping them to brush their teeth. And now, he was sketching her reading a story. The pad was almost filled already, and it had only been a couple of hours. Caroline hadn't snuck a peek yet, but she was dying to.

Livia was curled up against Klaus, her head on his knee, thumb in her mouth. Klaus turned over a new page in his pad, and started another drawing, as he said, "That particular William Kidd wasn't even a pirate at all. Just a privateer, no actual pirating to his credit. Now, the other Billy Kydd, the one from a couple of hundred of years before the one in your ridiculous story, _he_ was absolutely a pirate. He captured one of Elijah's sailing vessels off the coast of Brittany in 1450, I believe. Might have been 1452. I was furious. That ship had several of my things on it. Some tapestries and furniture I wanted for my house in Devonshire. I never did get them back."

"Ahem," Caroline said, ignoring him, "anyway, Captain Kidd declared-"

"You actually know _real_ pirates?"Little John asked, his eyes wide. He had been standing on the small floor space between the two small beds, waving a wooden sword around, pirate hat on his head and patch covering his eye. "_Real_ ones?"

"Knew, being the word," Klaus responded, not raising his eyes from his sketchpad. "Dead now, of course. You humans die so quickly. Pirates are not a long lived group, anyway. Of course, there have been non-human pirates-"

"_Ahem_," Caroline said again, with a sterner note this time. "Ixnay on non-human talk, 'kay? Dangerous paths, Klaus."

"I suppose that's true."

"Can you tell us a story about real pirates?" Piper asked, lifting her head from Caroline's shoulder.

Caroline shook her head. "So not a good idea."

"Please?" Little John said. He lifted the patch on his eye to give Klaus his best puppydog stare.

Livia took her thumb out of her mouth and said, "Klausy Klaus tell pirate story. Now."

Klaus, still not looking up, remarked, "Can't do any actual harm, love. Just a story."

"Oh, fine. You do like having a captive audience, I can tell."

"The very best kind of an audience. Well, little ones, there was a vampire pirate that I met and sailed with in 1643. They called her Long Meg, because she was quite as tall as as any man."

"_Vampire _pirate?" Now Little John's eyes were as big as saucers.

"Vampires aren't real," Piper interjected.

"Of course they aren't," Caroline said. "It's just a story. And if you happen to mention it to your folks? Let's stress the fact that it's just a story, okay?"

"Long Meg was not her actual name, of course. She was French, and her real name was Marie de Villefranche. She hadn't been a vampire very long when I met her. Maybe only a few decades. She wasn't very pretty, but she was a striking woman, with dark hair and the palest skin. She could only come out of her cabin at night, of course, being a vampire, so it was hard for her to keep a crew around. You can't get a group of vampires to work together well enough to crew a ship, too much drama occurs. So she had to use a human crew, and they would often jump ship when they had a chance. Marie was oddly moral when it came to compulsion, but she had a tendency to eat her crewmates when she was feeling peckish. Strange woman. I did urge her to be a bit more practical, and simply keep some extra people around for food on her journeys. Cage them up in the hold, if she didn't want to compel them. She was worried though, that keeping caged people on board woud just make her crew even jumpier."

"Imagine that," Caroline murmured.

"I brought my own food when I sailed with her, of course. Eventually, the food problem would prove to be her downfall. A few years after I knew her, she ended up stranded in the Atlantic, having eaten her entire crew and unable to manage the ship on her own. A privateer captured her, and staked her, and that was the end of Long Meg. Ridiculous occupation for a vampire anyway."

"How did you meet her?" Piper asked.

"I met her in London at a tavern. I was looking for someone to take me to Tortuga so I could find a particular witch."

"A witch?" Now Piper's eyes were fully as big as her brother's.

"Yes, but it was unfortunately a wild goose chase. The witch had been dead a fortnight by the time we reached Tortuga. I did snag her sister and take her back to England with me, but she was a poor substitute. Nowhere near as much power, and her control was terrible. Even asking her to light a candle for you was risking your entire house burning down. But I wanted her sister's grimoire, and it was written in a kind of pidgin Spanish with horrid handwriting. It seemed easier at the time to take the girl with me to translate it. It was such a hodgepodge of nonsense in the end, though. Another failure, another waste of time."

"Another attempt at breaking your curse, huh?" Caroline asked, interested despite herself. "You said you put a lot of effort into it over the years."

"It's practically all I have done for a millenium, Caroline. Chase down leads that go nowhere. When I wasn't being chased myself by my father."

"Well, now you are free of that. Of chasing and being chased."

"Yes, I suppose that I am. Well, anyway, Long Meg wasn't a terribly fearsome pirate, but she did her share of capturing ships and looting and burning survivors and whatnot. We even captured a vessel on our way back from Tortuga, but it was mostly full of slaves, and neither she nor I had any interest in them. The captain was tasty, though. We dumped the slaves into the sea-"

"And I think that's enough of that story, don't you?" Caroline said, abruptly.

Klaus shrugged. "As you wish," he said, and went back to sketching on the pad.

* * *

Annie and John had come home, grumbling that the warehouse their realtor showed them was entirely useless for what they needed it for. "And too close to the waterfront," Annie complained. "I wouldn't have a moment's peace worrying about the kids crossing the street and going right in. Can you imagine fishing Little John out of the East River? So nasty. I would have to have him decontaminated on a daily basis."

John swept Klaus off to his studio to talk about something or other, so Caroline helped Annie tidy up the kitchen.

Annie had been very impressed that the children were all sleeping peacefully in their beds. "However did you manage that?"

"Lots and lots of pirate stories. They went out like little lights," Caroline said, not mentioning of course, that Klaus had simply gotten bored with babysitting and had compelled the children to go to sleep so he could seduce Caroline on the couch.

The evening had reminded Caroline that she was still a teenager after all. What could be more teenagery than making out with your boyfriend when you are supposed to be babysitting? The whole time, she had been terrified that the Dodds would come home and catch them, and then giggly at the very thought.

Klaus returned from the backyard, saying over his shoulder to John, "Then it is decided- oil pastels? We can start tomorrow, perhaps?"

John followed Klaus into the kitchen, rubbing his beard. "Yes, there should be time for that. I must ponder, however, on how to approach you. The right saint - so tricky. Have you a particular fondess for being shot with arrows?"

Annie laughed. "I don't think I even want to know what the two of you are cooking up. Sounds uncomfortable."

"It does, doesn't it?" Caroline agreed. "I'm not even going to ask either."

Klaus merely smiled. He and he and Caroline said goodnight to Annie and John, and then went back upstairs to their apartment.

"Fitz will be here soon, love. This is a special night, and we are going to do something special, something that you have never done before.," Klaus told her.

"Special? Uh oh, I have nothing to wear. The nicest dress I had from Elena was the one I got blood on last night. And that is never coming out." Caroline went into the bathroom and started to repair her makeup. She wondered if Annie had even noticed that Caroline's lipstick was seriously smeared.

"Fitz is bringing you something," Klaus called out to her from the bedroom, where he was changing his clothes.

"What? Really?"

Klaus appeared in the bathroom doorway, formally attired but with his bow tie in his hand. "I told him to look in Elena's closet for something decent. I know she must have at least one nice dress, because she wore some sparkly thing to a soiree Elijah threw for the residents of his building. It'll look much better on you. Everything looks better on you."

"You really don't care for Elena much, do you?" Caroline asked him, as she flipped her head down and brushed her hair.

"She is a reminder of my greatest failure, Caroline. So many centuries of planning lost because of her. That alone would make her presence irritating. And beyond that, we've never had any rapport at all. She glares at me, I ignore her. Not so very different from other family dynamics, I assume." Klaus held the bow tie out to her. "If you don't mind?"

Caroline put the brush down on the sink counter and took the tie. "Doesn't matter if you are thirteen or a thousand. You men are hopeless at these," she said, as she reached up and tied his tie for him. "Good thing I grew up in Mystic Falls. They teach us all about the mechanics of formal wear in Home Ec."

"Men are not as hopeless as you think, Caroline. Perhaps we just know this is a foolproof way of getting a beautiful woman to touch us."

Caroline laughed. "Well, you never need to trick me into touching you. The real trick is getting me to stop."

That was too much for Klaus, and he proceeded to thoroughly ruin her makeup once again.

* * *

The something 'special' that Klaus wanted to do was to go to the opera to see _Eugene_ _Onegin_. He was so proud and delighted with himself when he told her in the car on the way over the Queensboro Bridge, that Caroline didn't have the heart to tell him that listening to heavyset middle aged singers pretend to be young lovers _in Russian_ for God's sake, was not exactly high on her list of 'special' things to do.

The Lincoln Center was beautiful, though, and Caroline felt like dancing along the edge of the fountain in the plaza out front. The way the water was lit and choreographed made her want to twirl and twirl. The lights bounced around the water and the marble and reflected off the gold and silver metallic threads in the Jenny Packham cocktail dress Fitz had brought her from Elena's closet. She and Klaus were overdressed compared to everyone else milling around, but Caroline didn't care. It felt right to be the most glamorous people on the plaza. It was Klaus's right to be king, and her right to be queen.

Klaus watched her with a smile on his face, and laughed as she shrieked when a sudden spurt of water in the fountain took her by surprise. He held her hand as they strolled around the plaza, and pulled her in close for a kiss every tenth step. It was like waking up to find yourself in an American Express commercial, and it was grand.

Klaus suddenly spun her around, as though they were dancing, and Caroline laughed as the people walking nearby started clapping for them.

"We aren't part of a show, but thanks," Caroline called out to the applauders, as Klaus spun her again, making her skirt fly out. He brought her close to him, and held her against his chest.

She laughed up at him. "Such a cheesy romantic. Who would have guessed?" Caroline looked across the plaza again. "This is lovely."

"Nothing is as lovely as you are tonight, Caroline," he said. "Nothing in this whole city. And just wait until I take you to Rome. You can dance along the edge of the Trevi Fountain in the nighttime. We can make love on the Spanish Steps just as the morning begins to dawn."

She waved a hand at the night, the city, the plaza, the people. "This isn't real life, you know. Real life is mortgages and paychecks, and Mystic Falls, and friends and moms who worry about you. It's not sparkly lights and pretty fountains."

"This could be _our_ real life. Every night forever." Klaus spun her again, and then dipped her low. He brought her back up, and she could not catch her breath. "Stop thinking so human, Caroline. Just let go."

* * *

She could see why Klaus had wanted to come there, to that place in the city. It actually _was_ special, and it did bring out another side to him. Caroline would have been happy staying right there to watch the fountain and the people coming and going, though. Just being there with him was enough. She had no need for the opera itself.

As they entered the opera hall however, and Caroline was surrounded by the red and gold and crystal of the interior, she caught a little of the excitement that her fellow opera goers seemed to be experiencing. There was a buzz and a hum and she was suddenly looking forward to the production. Who knows, maybe she could find a way to actually like opera.

Klaus compelled them a pair of box seats on the Parterre, and they had an excellent view of the stage. The curtains were still closed however, and Caroline could just see people moving around and setting up instruments in the orchestra pit.

Caroline realized quickly, though, that the real drama for right that moment was happening with the couple seated right in front of them. The guy did not want to be there. The older woman next to him had obviously dragged him to the opera, and he was intent on making her acknowledge that that he was miserable. They had met on some dating site that connected cougars to younger men, and Caroline could see that this particular date was not going well at all.

"I said in my profile that going to the opera was my passion," the woman said to him.

"Everyone lies in those things. I mean, I even said I liked children and puppies in mine. I thought you were just being, you know, whatever. Ironical."

"Ironical- what does that even mean?"

"It means I didn't know you were such a grandma, jeez. Whatever. Let's just get through this, and go back to your place."

The woman closed her mouth after that, and just stared at the closed curtains. The guy pulled some gum out of his pocket, and started chewing. Loudly. Especially loudly if you were a vampire seated near him and had super hearing. He also pulled out a phone and began to send text messages.

Klaus had been studying the program, and had not been paying attention to the couple in front of them. He turned to Caroline, and pointed at the listing for the soprano. "Karita Mattila is singing Tatyana. That should be marvelous. I saw her do Pamina at Covent Garden in 1985. A wonderful light voice. And this production will highlight her talents very well. Although my favorite production of _Onegin_ will probably always be it's Wiener Staatsoper premiere with Mahler conducting in 1889. Sublime, truly."

"Uh huh," Caroline responded, only half listening to him.

There were so many conversations going on around her, so many people talking and talking as they all waited for the orchestra to start warming up. There was a couple in the row behind her arguing about whether or not they should move from the Upper West Side to Connecticut. Another couple far below in the orchestra section were discussing the plans for the rest of the evening. The lady thought the plans should include sex with someone called 'Gertie', and the gentleman thought not. The lady thought she and Gertie could persuade him. The gentleman said once with Gertie was plenty, and he wasn't doing that again, and could they please just have regular sex like regular people and not involve a whole crowd and assorted props and toys this time? His ass was still sore from three nights ago.

Caroline decided that it was kind of fun being a vampire in this space.

"What would you say to that, Caroline?"

"Oh, um . . . what?"

Klaus repeated, patiently, "I was merely suggesting that, if you would prefer we do things the human way, I could always purchase us season tickets here at the Met. So when we come up for family dinners twice a month, we can take in a performance afterwards. Would you like that? We could buy them for City Opera, too. The productions are sometimes more adventurous, even if the singing is not always quite as first rate."

"Oh, I don't know. Do I have to answer now?"

Klaus said quietly, almost as if to himself, "I had almost forgotten. I only have you for another eleven days, and I keep thinking . . . never mind."

* * *

Klaus was silent throughout most of the first act. But during the scene where Tatyana spends the whole night writing an impassioned letter to Onegin, he took Caroline's hand in his, and murmured softly, "She loves. Oh, how she loves. She doesn't know him, but she loves him."

Caroline opened her mouth to whisper a response, but at that point the guy in front of them started to laugh. "You can so totally see her tits through that nighty. She's flashing her tits to everyone." The guy did not bother to modulate his tone at all, and several heads turned towards their box.

Caroline looked over at Klaus to see his eyes narrow in the dark. She said nothing, she only stroked his hand lightly.

All was well for several more minutes, but then the guy pulled out his phone and starting texting again. The light from the phone was very distracting in the darkened hall. The man chuckled as he read some of the texts he was receiving.

Caroline could feel Klaus grow even more tense beside her.

Onegin and Tatyana met in the garden, where he tried to break her heart as gently as possible. It was moving, and full of pathos, and the guy in front of them had put his phone away and was now saying to his date, "I'm bored shitless. Can we just go somewhere and bone already?"

The curtain closed after Onegin's aria, and the lights came up for intermission. Caroline immediately wrapped her arm around Klaus's arm and physically held him down in his seat until the guy and his date had gotten up from their seats and left the box to go to the lobby. To her, it looked like the lady was not going to waste much time in dumping the guy.

"Nuh uh," Caroline said to Klaus, as he made a move to stand up. "We are dressed fancy and civilized, and that's how we will behave. Special evening, remember?"

With a huff, Klaus replied, "I have _been_ 'civilized' and restrained, Caroline, since the man first uttered the words 'tits'."

Keeping her arm on him, Caroline craned her neck until she saw that the guy had left the seating area entirely. "Okay, now we can go. I'm thirsty. How long is intermission?"

"Probably not long enough to do both champagne and a feed. What kind of thirsty are you?"

Caroline thought for a second. "Let's feed."

"Very well." They left the box, and moved quickly through the crowd, hand in hand. Exiting the hall into the night air, fresh with mist from the fountain, Caroline and Klaus both looked around for a likely target.

"Her?" Klaus asked, indicating a woman standing alone, talking on her phone.

"I don't want to interrupt her conversation. Could be important."

"Your courtesy towards your meals will never stop delighting me, Caroline. How about-" Just as Klaus was turning towards another prospect, the guy from the cougar dating site bumped into him. He was paying no attention to anyone, he was looking down at his phone. As Caroline had suspected, his date had understandably abandoned him.

"Watch it." The guy growled at Klaus, still not looking up.

"Well, if it isn't Mr. Talks-a-lot. So clever, so witty, so funny. Look, Caroline, it's the funny man from in front of us."

That did make the guy look up. "Are you talking to me, bro?"

"Klaus . . ." she murmured in a warning tone, under her breath. "He's human."

"What did that bitch just call me?'

"The _lady_ was just reminding me that I shouldn't kill you for your boorishness. I'm not certain that the lady is correct."

"Oh, yeah. Like to see you try, asshole."

"There is no 'trying' when I decide to kill someone. There is only death. But not for you, mate." Klaus grabbed the man, and snapped his arm in half. "No death for you. Just lots and lots of lovely pain."

The man shrieked, and several people around them on the plaza came closer to see what was going on.

"Oh, for God's sake, Klaus!" Caroline said, furious. Caroline turned away from Klaus and dropped his hand. She could see Fitz and their car parked very illegally directly beside the plaza, and she began making her way through the rapidly growing crowd towards it.

"Caroline, wait!"

Caroline spun to face him, a few paces away from the car. "No. We were having a nice time. I was having a nice time. I was finally starting to see what you like in this kind of evening. The music, and the singing, and the lights and the . . . the everything. I was starting to understand you. You _ruined_ it. You and your stupid anger issues."

"He called you a bitch, Caroline. I was to let that go? Is that what your Tyler would have done?"

"No, Tyler would have knocked him out. Which is, you know, a fairly normal kind of response. Breaking his arm was not."

"You have to stop insisting that I be normal!" Klaus paced in front of her, his tie askew. "I broke his arm instead of snapping his neck. I did that for _you. _You know what we deal with. What courses through us at every moment. You have seen it in your friend Elena. I am not human, I am not even a _normal_ vampire. I am Original. And all that goes with it."

"You _feel_ too much, that's your excuse for being a dick? Well, that's just great." Caroline turned away, and walked to the car and opened the door. She wasn't going to wait for Fitz to play chauffeur and open the door for her.

When Klaus attempted to slide in beside her, she closed the door, saying, "I don't think so. Take a cab."

Caroline leaned over towards the driver's seat. "Fitz, to the Brooklyn Bridge."

"We should wait for Mr. Klaus, miss."

"Nope, we won't be waiting for Mr. Klaus."

When he still didn't make a move to pull out of the parking spot, Caroline said, sharply, "You so don't want to mess with me right now. To the Brooklyn Bridge, Fitz."

Fitz nodded, and pulled the car out into traffic. "And after that, miss?"

Caroline turned in her seat, to see Klaus still standing on the curb, his hand raised for a taxi.

"Just make it to the bridge. Don't worry about after."

* * *

She waited for him because she knew that he would come. He would always come for her.

Caroline thought she might have picked the wrong bridge, though. It wasn't going to be anywhere near as easy as she had imagined to do what she wanted to do. She could see another bridge from where she was standing on a rail, with a subway train going over it, and she wondered if maybe that one would have been better. But she didn't know what that bridge was called.

On this bridge, she thought she might have to do some climbing. Quite a bit maybe.

She looked down and behind her, to where Fitz was sitting on the hood of the car, smoking a cigarette and watching her without any real interest. He had her silver heels in his lap. He casually flipped a middle finger when a car trying to pass him started honking. The police would probably show up soon. She hadn't thought of that.

A yellow cab pulled up, and Klaus came out of it. He jumped the concrete divider and came over so he was standing directly under her.

"Hey there," Caroline said.

"Caroline, what are you doing? What are you thinking?"

"Doing is the right word, thinking not so much. I may have picked the wrong bridge. What's that one called?" She pointed at the bridge in the distance.

"That's the Manhattan Bridge. Come down from there so we can talk."

"I like it up here. it's nice." She started to climb through the wires blocking her access to the river. "Is that the East River below me? The one Annie said was dirty?" she called back down to him. She climbed another layer up, balancing on the wire itself.

"Yes, it is. And it's very dirty. So, Caroline, don't be crazy."

"You make me crazy, to be honest. Maybe I feel too much, too."

And Caroline turned away from Klaus and dove off the Brooklyn Bridge.

It wasn't perhaps, the most graceful dive in the history of people jumping from the Brooklyn Bridge, but she was still a cheerleader and a vampire, so there was a certain elegance in the way she sliced though the water. And as soon as the water closed over her head and she felt the rush of it surround her with coolness and peace, she felt better. It was beautiful.

She dove deeper and deeper until she reached the very bottom of the East River. It wasn't actually as deep as she had expected it to be. She swam along the bottom, her skirts flashing gold and silver behind her. She was a mermaid, she told herself. She belonged down here.

It was murky and dark, but her vampire eyes could pick out odd details here and there. Rebar jutting out at different angles. Shopping carts and tires. A couple of fish swam by her face, a tail even batting her ear. She swerved under the water to avoid the empty hulk of an old Chevrolet. At one point, she even saw a dinette set - table and chairs sitting perfectly upright. She imagined herself inviting her vampire friends over for a tea party at that table. She could live down here, in the muck at the bottom of the river forever. She didn't need to breathe after all. She could sleep in a shipwreck, live in one of the old cars. Never come back up again.

There was a disturbance in the water, and she turned to see Klaus behind her. He reached her and grabbed at her ankle, but she kicked him off, and headed for the surface. She broke the surface, arriving into the dark of the night, lights from the city on both sides of the river shining and reflecting back on the water.

Klaus came up through the water beside her. "You are insane," he said, the water slicking back his hair. He must have left his jacket with Fitz, but he had not stopped to remove his tie. The lights bounced off the water and lit up his face with strange shadows. He was the unknown like this, wet and shadowed, and yet she knew him. He was hers.

"I know," she responded, treading water and feeling the buoyancy of her vampire body with some surprise. "I float so well. Why is that?"

"It's how we are made. What were you thinking, Caroline?"

"I was thinking about living there, under the water. I guess I couldn't, huh? I would just float up."

"I don't understand you. It will take me a thousand years to understand you."

Caroline bobbed closer to him, and took him by the shoulders. "Sometimes I don't understand myself."

They were close now, their faces very close to each other, equally wet and equally serious. "All of this because I broke a man's arm, Caroline?"

She shook her head, keeping ahold of him as she did so. "No, not really. You keep forgetting that I've been in the throes of a mental breakdown since Friday."

"Ah, yes. Silly of me to forget that."

"I've known I was going to do this, ever since you said you were taking me to a city of bridges. I knew I'd be jumping off one. I had to."

"My stubborn Caroline, and her search for metaphor. Can we return to dry land now?"

"Just point me to Queens, and we can swim home. I can't promise I won't fall asleep halfway there, though."

Klaus laughed at her, but it was a gentle laugh. A kind laugh. "Nothing like taking a swim before bedtime with a crazy person. Hold on to me with your claws, bobcat. I'll carry you there."

* * *

AN: Okay, so the last time the Met did _Onegin _with Karita Mattila singing Tatyana and Thomas Hampson singing Onegin would have been during the 2008 -2009 season. So yes, I'm taking a big liberty here in moving the production to whenever you want to think this story is taking place (let's be honest, the tv show itself is bad about timeline, so it's hard to pinpoint). But it's my absolute favorite opera, and the Met production is a really great one. I saw the one from the season before, with Renee Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky and I totally cried. Buckets and buckets. For the life of me, however, I can't remember if intermission comes after Act One or Act Two, so I may have chosen wrong here.

Also, I researched what you might find on the bottom of the East River, and apparently there actually is a dinette table sitting properly straight up that has been spotted by divers near 16th St. I added the chairs. It would be a freaky thing to see, right?

I did so much research for this chapter, which is why it took so long to complete. Piracy and the slave trade in the 1640s, the history of _Eugene Onegin_, the renovations done to Lincoln Center and the plaza, Karita Matilla's career, whether or not Jenny Packham makes metallic cocktail dresses, debris in the East River, and how hard/easy it is to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge. Whew.


	13. and darling

AN: I want to thank everyone SO MUCH for the kind reviews you have been leaving me. They keep me going. Thank you!

I think we have two or three more chapters left of this story, by the way. Things are definitely cruising towards a conclusion.

* * *

Their first class didn't start until ten, so Caroline and Klaus decided to enjoy a rather leisurely morning in bed the next day.

"Do you think we left any hot water for the rest of the building?" Caroline asked, her head pillowed on Klaus's bare chest.

"You decided it would be fun to jump into the East River, Caroline. An extremely long shower was a direct consequence of that decision," Klaus said, twining his fingers in her hair.

"So how did it end, anyway?"

"How did what end?"

"The opera. Kinda missed the last two acts."

"I will be taking you back sometime in the next ten days, love. But if you can't wait until then, I will tell you. After Eugene breaks poor Tatyana's heart and rejects her, he decides to show her how unworthy he is by flirting with her sister at a party."

Caroline protested, "But Olga was engaged to Lensky."

"Exactly. And Lensky challenges Eugene to a duel. A duel that Lensky loses. He is killed by Onegin."

"Okay, that sucks. They were best friends."

"Yes, and Onegin is so upset at killing his friend, that he leaves Russia for three years. When he comes back, he sees Tatyana at a party in St. Petersburg, now married to a prince. Onegin falls in love with her instantly. He writes her a letter, and then goes to see her. She breaks his heart, very kindly and gently, and refuses to see him again, even though she still loves him after all that time. And that's how it ends, with both of them heartbroken."

"Wait, what? Are you freaking kidding me?" Caroline sat up. "What kind of monster writes a story where the main characters don't even end up together? Oh, my God, I am so not going back to watch the rest of it."

Klaus laughed, and tugged her back down to his chest. She settled back against him, and he kissed the top of her head. "Well, when questioned about the ending, Pushkin always said that Onegin was not nearly good enough for his Tatyana."

"Of course, he wasn't good enough, but that doesn't matter when it comes to love, does it?"

"You tell me, Caroline."

"Wait, who is Pushkin? I thought you said it was written by Tchaikovsky."

"Tchaikovsky composed the opera, but it was based on a poem by Pushkin."

"Which you have probably read in the original Russian."

"Of course. And in a Polish translation, and in a French translation, and in an Italian translation. I only made it halfway through the Hungarian, though, because my Magyar isn't very good. It's a very popular poem, as famous as Romeo and Juliet in some parts of the world, and easily one of my favorites. We'll read it together, if you like."

"Honestly, I don't even know what you see in me. I don't know any of this stuff." Caroline raised her head up, and met his eyes. "Small town girl, you know. How can I be enough for you?"

He met her eyes steadily, and held her gaze. "You are more than enough, my love."

"No, seriously. I'm not a stupid person, but I'm a complete idiot when it comes to all of these things that are important to you."

"There is nothing you can't learn. And when we do these things together, it makes everything new for me again. It is enchanting to see what I love through your eyes, Caroline." Klaus cradled her face in his hands. "I dreamed of nothing but breaking the curse for century after century. And then it was broken, and it wasn't fulfilling the way I thought it would be. There was nothing but emptiness for me, stretching into eternity."

"And then you came to me on my birthday . . . " Caroline murmured.

"I saw you on your birthday, so brave and defiant, and I suppose you became my new dream. I recognized that we were kindred, and I knew you would see that too, someday. And here you are."

"Here I am," Caroline echoed, reaching out to touch his face softly. "I don't know that we are kindred, as you say, but here I am. And you are less empty?"

"Less empty every day with you."

"I am glad for that. And you can show me whatever you like. But don't you dare take me to another opera where the main characters don't end up together happily ever after. I totally can't handle that kind of a downer, my poor heart can't take it."

Klaus laughed, and then said, "You really don't know much about opera yet, Caroline. That doesn't leave us any choices at all. You will want to murder me after I take you to see _La Boheme._"

* * *

Fitz arrived with a car packed to the roof with boxes and canvases.

"Good Lord, I was not expecting so many things," Caroline remarked, as he and Klaus unloaded everything onto the sidewalk in front of the apartment building.

"Ah, excellent work, Fitz. It looks like you located all of the Holbein woodcuts. I wanted to compare them to the Japanese prints today."

"Yes, Mr. Klaus."

"This will probably do for now. I'll let you know if I have another list for you later."

"Yes, Mr. Klaus."

"Wait, how are you even out in the daytime, Fitz? And I'm just now noticing that the windows on the car aren't even tinted," Caroline asked him, suddenly.

Fitz held up a hand, and Caroline noted his ring. "Oh, right. You know a Bennett witch?"

Klaus shook his head, and handed a large canvas to Fitz. "No, Elijah always keeps a few daylight men on his payroll. He issues them rings when they begin to work for him, and when their employment ends, they have to give the rings back."

"Oh. That kinda sucks."

Fitz smiled at her, and it was the first time Caroline had ever seen him do so. "It's okay, miss. Mr. Elijah will make me forget everything, so I won't even care. I'll have forgotten the past fifty years."

"Um, convenient, I suppose? For him, though, not so much for you." She waved a hand at the artwork piling up on the sidewalk. "Now I'm totally getting nervous. We are taking these to a _public_ school. Is it all insured?"

Klaus raised an eyebrow at her. "Tricky to buy insurance for what has been obtained illegally, Caroline."

"Great," Caroline mumbled. "I did not want to know that. Just how much is all this worth, anyway?"

While holding the door open for Fitz to go through with a few boxes, Klaus tilted his head and thought about her question. "At today's prices? $5 million, perhaps? No, wait, I forgot that I also had him bring the smaller of my two Jasper Johns. Make that $11 million."

"Oh, God. And tonight will probably be the night the building burns down." Caroline would have hyperventilated if she hadn't been a vampire. She took a deep breath. "Carry on, then. And don't mind me, I'm just going to go sit over there, and have a panic attack."

* * *

Their morning class at P. S. 41 in Brooklyn went very well, although Caroline cringed every time Klaus casually handed a centuries old Japanese scroll or German Gothic print to one of the seventh graders to pass around. She did make sure everyone's hands were clean first, at least.

The students seemed interested as a whole, and Klaus responded politely to the questions they asked. Not a single tissue was required, and he didn't threaten to eat anyone, which was a huge relief. He definitely handled the older students better than he had the nine year olds from the day before.

Lunch was . . . well, lunch was public school food. They ducked out of the cafeteria, and found a teacher behind the building on a smoke break, and shared her for lunch instead. Caroline didn't care much for smokers as a rule, but this lady didn't taste half bad. She was obviously not a chain smoker, because she was light and fresh like a kiwi fruit.

After lunch they were back in the same classroom, but with eighth graders this time. There was one scary moment when one of the kids tore the corner of a three hundred and twenty year old print from the Torii school of Japanese printmaking, but Klaus merely took the print away and set it aside, without snapping a single limb or neck. Caroline held her breath from then until the end of class, however.

In the car on the way back to Astoria, Caroline said, "So some guy mildly annoys you last night, and will probably need major surgery and pins in his arms, but a student rips a nearly priceless piece of art, and you are totally cool with that?"

Klaus smiled. "I am strangely calm today. Perhaps we should take a swim in the river every night."

"Tempting, but maybe not. I think that was more of a once-in-an-existence kind of thing."

"My wardrobe thanks you for that decision. There were things living in my pockets when we came out of the river. Things I couldn't identify."

Caroline giggled. "I know, it was pretty slimy. And I so totally owe Elena two designers dresses now. My mother will be thrilled. Pretty sure that dress last night is going to cost half a month's sheriff's salary. Things are a little bit tighter now that my dad is no longer around to send support checks and buy me things."

"Don't be ridiculous, Caroline. She doesn't expect you to replace them. Besides, with one phone call, I can have a credit card added to my account in your name. With a second call, your trust fund can rival Elena's."

"Oh, wow, that's sort of insulting. Yeah, not planning on being any kind of a kept woman, thank you very much." Caroline looked at him, suddenly sobered. "Even if we do stay together."

"You are thinking like a human again, my dear. Money means nothing in our world. It flows like water, all around us."

"How much did our night at the Moroccan cost you?" she asked him, abruptly.

"Nothing. They would never dare charge me. They harbor my enemies, they are fortunate I do not burn them to the ground."

"If they had dared?"

"Six or seven thousand, perhaps. The herb they use there is fairly rare, and difficult to obtain."

"A trip to Rome this weekend, to dance on fountains and make love on the stairs?"

"The Spanish Steps, not stairs. At least twenty thousand, without compulsion. If we flew first class and stayed in my usual suite at the Baglioni, that is. More, if we rented a villa outside of town. But focusing on money is tedious. Why are you asking this? What does it matter?"

"_Twenty thousand? _For just a _weekend?_ That's ridiculous. And it matters because -" Caroline shook her head. "God, I don't know. I guess it matters because I'm not a princess. I don't want to live full time in a fairytale, and sometimes I think that you think I do."

"I don't think you are a 'princess', I know that you are a queen. My queen of the night. It's not a 'fairytale' as you call it, it is simply the life we are entitled to - the life that is waiting for us while you make up your mind."

Klaus dropped her hand, which he had been holding since they had entered the car. "I am not attempting to bribe you into loving me, Caroline. If you think money means anything to me at all, you are wrong."

"I'm not a gold digger, not even a little bit. Just making that super clear. If anything, the money just gets in the way."

"I know that. I have never thought of you that way."

"And if we do this . . . if we are together beyond these two weeks, there would have to be a balance."

"I don't know what you mean by that, Caroline."

"You can't live in some kind of fantasy life, cut off from real people and real things, Klaus. _I_ can't. I don't want to. I don't see how anyone can be a good person if no one ever relies on them, if they aren't, you know, _involved_ in real endeavors with other people. It can't be just a 'gosh gee how many rich people things can we do today' vacation all of the time, when there is work to be done in the world, to make it a better place for everyone."

"What is 'work' to us? What is 'everyone' to us? You mentioned mortgages and paychecks last night - but darling, those are the things that are no longer real. You are a vampire, you need not have human concerns about how to live, how to keep a roof over your head, or whether or not your neighbor's groceries are put away properly. This is what you must learn. Why can't you see what you are worth now, that you have entered into a world where there is nothing more important than your own happiness, your own pleasure? You are the superior creature. Everyone around you only exists to further your aims."

"Wow, selfish, much? That can't be me, I'm sorry. It never will be. We keep coming back to this." Caroline looked at him, and they locked gazes. "I don't think we are as kindred as you think we are. I'm sorry."

She looked away from him and stared at the back of Fitz's head, as he silently drove them through the streets of Brooklyn. "I thought I could drop us into the middle of a human community, that I could weave you into the lives of humans and make you care about what happens to them. That you would get _involved._ Need and be needed. Even though it's only been a few days, I can already see that it's not going to work."

Klaus was quiet, and then he reached over, and took her hand in his again. "What are you saying, Caroline?"

"I'm not saying anything," she said, turning towards him. "I didn't mean to make it sound like I was ending it all this second. Just thinking aloud, I guess. And honestly, this morning at school, I felt like you were actually trying to make this work. I just had unrealistic expectations. I totally do that sometimes - it's the downside to being Caroline Forbes."

"I want to hand you the world, and you want me to get a job. You are a strange woman, Caroline. What did you really picture happening when you arranged all this? What was your ideal outcome?"

"I don't know if I had any ideal outcome at all. No, wait - that's not true. I do know, but it's crazy . . . okay, so I had this idea that you would discover some child prodigy in one of your art classes, some kid who would turn your whole idea about art upside down, who would make you reconsider how you felt about humanity. I kind of pictured this like, wise old soul child who would say super smart and insightful things, so you'd be all like, 'wow, this life is worth perserving, this child is not just a mayfly to me'. And you would be inspired to help them out of the ghetto, or whatever, and teach them stuff, and make sure they went to art school, and help them with their first gallery show . . . . and the music would swell, and we would kiss at their college graduation, and . . . and I don't know. We'd stay here and mentor the kid together forever, I guess. A real connection to a real person. Happily ever after. It was dumb. It was supposed to be the kind of thing they make a Lifetime movie of the week out of."

Klaus smiled. "Having been in four art classes, and having met many of the human children of these two boroughs, I think I can safely say that is not going to happen. Any of it."

"I know," Caroline said, with a sigh. "It's not."

"But this little adventure of ours has introduced me to the work of John Dodd, and the man has a certain kind of genius. It has been worthwhile for that reason, and I do plan on acquiring most of his paintings and his works on charcoal. And perhaps I will even consider furthuring his career if I can."

"Whoopee. You get to add to your already massive collection of stuff. Not exactly the transcendant overhaul of your worldview I was going for."

Klaus gave a small laugh. "You know, it has not escaped me that the artworks I admire, the music I listen to, and the literature that I read, are mostly human products, Caroline."

"Yeah, but I have now figured out that you seem to class artists in a different category than regular humans. You value them differently."

"True. I always have."

"So none of this has made any difference at all."

"Cheer up, love. It's only Tuesday. Maybe tomorrow will bring me into contact with a spritually wise eight year old in The Bronx who will revolutionize my very being with his superior watercolor apple."

"Shut up, and stop teasing me," Caroline said, smiling back at him. "Such a jerk. Hey, you know what? Compel me."

"What? That was an unexpected change of subject. An unwelcome one, too."

"I've never been compelled as a vampire, and I'd like to know what it's like."

"No, Caroline. You don't know what you are asking."

"Oh, c'mon. I trust you and it'll be fun."

"How will it be fun? You won't even remember it."

"Well, then it'll be fun for you. Give it a try. I call the shots, remember?"

Klaus looked her steadily in the eyes. "A dangerous path, love. But very well."

When Caroline next opened her eyes, she saw that Klaus's hair was mussed, his shirt was undone, and there was lipstick on his face.

"Oh, my God, what did we just do?" she laughed. "By the looks of you, it must have been super fun."

Klaus said nothing, he only looked at her, and his eyes were serious.

Then he shook his head, and said, sadly, "It wasn't. I asked you to tell me that you loved me, and to kiss me like you meant it. To kiss me like you would never leave me. But none of it was real. None of it felt real."

"It didn't? Huh." Caroline touched her lips, which were still a little swollen.

Klaus looked away from her, and out the window just as they pulled up in front of their building in Astoria.

"Please don't tempt me like that again," he said, not looking at her. "It's not fair to either of us."

* * *

After Fitz dropped them off at their apartment, Klaus went to see John Dodd in his studio, and Caroline went upstairs. She had some thinking to do, and she wanted some distance and space to do it in. Since the previous Friday evening, she and Klaus had not spent more than two hours apart. But she wasn't feeling claustrophobic, quite the opposite. She felt like his proximity was a drug, one that clouded everything else, and affected the way she was seeing the world. And she only wanted more and more.

Every day they were together like this, he was seducing her. No, that wasn't it. She was letting herself be seduced. No, not it either. She was actively participating in her own seduction. Or maybe, it was a mutual seduction, because he was clearly falling for her, and the surety of _that_ was the actual drug, making her feel powerful. Magical, even.

She called Damon at his office, looking for a distraction.

"Well, well, if it isn't Miss Brooklyn Bridge. Enjoy your swim?"

"What the - how did you know?"

"Did you two not notice the news chopper hovering? You can't climb up the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge without somebody calling the news, genius. And the cops got there not long after Klaus made his death defying leap. They sent out rescue boats, too. There are probably still divers searching for your bodies."

"Oh my God - no, I didn't notice that at all. Does my mom know?"

"Nah. And luckily, you couldn't see your face clearly. Elena recognized her dress, though, and called me this morning to see if I thought it was you. I pulled it up on You Tube, and it so fucking was. A hundred and twenty foot dive. I scored you an 8.3, and Klaus a 9.5, by the way. The man has great form."

"She recognized it? Oh, great, I'll bet her dress was one of a kind. I feel really bad about that."

"Yep, apparently it was. But don't feel bad, she's only worried about you. Surprised you haven't heard from her. She kept insisting that Klaus compelled you to jump, but I said no, you are perfectly capable of doing something incredibly stupid all by your lonesome."

"I do have a couple of missed calls on here. We were in class all morning, and I had my phone off."

"What, a class to improve your bridge jumping technique? Never mind, I don't want to know what you are up to. You over all of this nonsense? Ready to come home? Stefan can come get you today. He's got nothing better to do but brood and drink and avoid Katherine."

"I don't need a babysitter, God. If I wanted to come home, I could manage that on my own."

"All right, all right. Don't get your panties in a twist. So? Is he treating you okay?"

"It's all fine, Damon. Klaus is . . . it's all fine. You can stop worrying so much about me. What about everyone else?"

"Well, your mom is pretending that she's not still freaking out, but she's not fooling anyone. Rebekah came over and announced that you and Klaus were super cozy at the Mikaelson family dinner, and that set Tyler off again on another weep-a-thon. Katherine threatened to rip his heart out if he didn't cheer the fuck up, so he finally left the boarding house and went off somewhere. He's not at his home, though. Carol thinks he went back to the Smokies to lick his wounds."

"Oh, I hope he's okay."

"Yeah, he'll be fine. Find himself some pretty lady werewolf in the woods probably. Full moon is coming up soon, so there should be a pack of 'em out there."

"It is? Wow, I don't even pay attention to that anymore. Used to be a big deal in my life."

"Apparently, you've developed other priorities. Speaking of, has your new boyfriend told you where he's got that silver stake tucked away?"

"Damon, don't even think about it."

"What? Just curious. You think it's at his house here, or did he bring it to New York with him? You noticed any bulging pockets?"

"Hanging up now. Goodbye, Damon."

"All right, blondie. Stay away from bridges and tall buildings. Get Klaus out of your system, and come the fuck home. I need you, as my official mayoral intern, to head up fundraising for the pediatric oncology center, and it has to get underway in a few weeks."

"Yeah, I know. I haven't forgotten. Bye."

Caroline called her mom, and talked for awhile, and then she called Elena, to apologize about the dress. But Damon was right, Elena was only worried about Caroline. It took ten minutes to convince Elena that the bridge jumping did not mean she was having a full psychotic breakdown, and also did not mean that Klaus was compelling her.

Then she called Bonnie, just to chat, but it was pretty obvious that Bonnie was seriously not happy about Caroline running off with Klaus, so that conversation ended quickly.

This wasn't going to be easy. None of it was. She was shacking up with the Big Bad Wolf, so of course it wasn't going to be easy. None of them were ever going to really accept it. Her 'idiot friends' as Klaus called them . . . they were her family. If this was how Bonnie was reacting - so cold, not even willing to talk- what was Matt going to say? What about Stefan, who had all kinds of reasons to hate Klaus? It was just hitting her that she was putting all of her friendships at risk. If she ended everything now, would it all go back to normal, or would they never really look at her the same way again?

Just as she was worrying about her old friends, her new best friend showed up. Caroline heard Tedrick knock on the door, saying, "Caroline? Best friend? Caroline?"

"Oh, geez," Caroline muttered. She opened the door with a big smile. "Hey, there. Glad you stopped by, Tedrick. I need to fix you."

"Oh, hey, I thought we could hang out. I learned a new chord on my banjo- wanna hear it?"

Caroline pulled looked him in the eyes and said, "I like you. You are a nice guy. We are not, however, best friends and we never were. We are _friendly_, but that's all. 'kay?"

"Okay," Tedrick responded. "Do you wanna hear that new chord on my banjo?"

"No, thanks. Is that all right?"

"Sure. See you around, Caroline."

"Bye, Tedrick."

Klaus paused on the landing, and nodded as Tedrick went passed him to go back downstairs. As he came into the apartment, he said, "Thank you for taking care of that. I was concerned that he might try to follow us back to Mystic Falls in ten days."

"Yeah, no worries. Certainly taught me a lesson about how to phrase compulsions, though. So, what did you and John do this afternoon?"

Klaus sat on the couch, and picked up a sketchbook from the side table. He flipped through the pages, and answered, "He's doing my head."

"He's what now?"

"At first I was going to have him do me three quarters, perhaps, and we were going to choose a saint for me. But today, I decided that I had no inclination to be done as a saint. No taste for the hypocrisy of it anymore. So he is only doing my head. Something quick, something you can keep with you after you leave me."

"It's not like I'm ever going to forget you. Not unless you make me do so."

"Hmmm, interesting proposition, actually. Would you like me to when this is over? Would you like me to erase all of this right now, in fact? It'll be as though we had never met, just say the word. At this point, I'm entirely at your command. I assume you have figured that out by now."

"Oh, are you pouting again?"

Klaus sighed, and set his sketchbook aside. "No, Caroline. I am not pouting. I am coming to terms with the fact that my loneliness is, and forever will be, a part of me. That I need to stop pinning my hopes on a girl who is never going to accept me for who I am, who is never going to open herself up to me, who is never-"

"Never going to love you." Caroline finished for him.

"Yes. Even though I knew better, I was still harboring a certain hope. I'm letting go of that now. Everything we are doing here is just delaying the inevitable."

Caroline came over to the couch, and very carefully, she positioned herself on his lap, straddling him. She stoked his cheek with her fingers, saying, "Don't give up quite yet. I'm not going to."

Caroline kissed him, nibbling on his bottom lip, but he put a hand on her and gently pushed her away. "I'm yours, entirely and completely, Caroline. You know this. But you are not mine, and you will never be. Don't torture me like this. Please."

"Then make me yours, Klaus. Wipe away all of my doubts. Make me not care anymore about how we are so different. Just . . . make me the way you want me to be. It could be simple, and easy, and wonderful."

He shook his head, miserable, and said, "Once again, you tempt me. You have to stop, Caroline. It's an evil thing you ask of me, an evil thing to do _to_ me. I had no idea you could be this cruel."

The world seemed to slow down at that moment. Caroline stood up, and took a couple of steps back. "You are right. That was cruel. I guess I'm just tired of not being able to figure any of this out. Figure us out. I keep thinking that _I'm_ the problem. If I was a different person, I wouldn't care so much about everything that divides us."

"If you were a different person, I would not want you, Caroline. I want nothing less than all of you, contradictions and everything. Your kindness and your cruelty. But you have to come to me willingly. It means nothing, otherwise."

"I know. Forget I said any of that. To have you compel me is definitely not what I want. Your ability to do it fascinates me for some reason, and there's something seductive about the thought. Just . . . flirting with something dangerous, I guess. But oh, it was a stupid thing to say."

Klaus stood up, and they faced each other across the small living room. He said to her, gently, "It wasn't stupid, Caroline. Not very thoughtful, perhaps, but not stupid. Part of you clearly wants to be with me, and the fact that you would even contemplate sacrificing your autonomy for that - and that you can recognize why you want to flirt with that kind of danger - this is part of who you are becoming. All options are on the table, and it's time for you to start making actual choices. Time for you to really look at how far we've come on this journey."

"This journey - it's only been a few days."

"Has it? Feels like we've come miles and miles in understanding, though."

"Yes, miles and miles." Caroline attempted a smile, but failed.

"Let's continue on, then. 'Til the bitter end, come what may." Klaus did manage a small smile, but it was one of sadness. "And right now, you need to get dressed."

"Why?"

"We've been invited out to eat with the Dodds family. I believe there was mention of an Indian place around the corner."

"Oh, okay." Caroline nodded, and made her way towards the bedroom to change clothes. She called out to him, "You'll have to order for me, though. The only thing I know about Indian food is that there is curry involved, somehow. I'm not so big on spicy-" she stopped, suddenly noticing a small ring box on the dresser. It was not Mallory's, and it had not been there that morning. "Klaus? What is this?"

He stood in the doorway. "Something I had Fitz bring with him from the vault in Elijah's flat. You can open it. Not, perhaps, the most appropriate time, but feel free. It's yours."

"Oh, you didn't take me seriously when I asked for something sparkly from a vault, did you? You know I didn't mean it."

"I know. But it reminded me that I did have something here in New York that was perfect."

She pick it up and opened it, and then immediately dropped the box back onto the dresser. "Holy shit."

"Too much, you think? You had no taste for the Roman ring I gave you before, and this is it's complete opposite." Klaus smiled, wryly. He came over and picked the box up, removing the ring inside. "Your finger, love."

"Yeah, I don't think so. That's, um . . . that's not even real."

"Oh, it is very real." Klaus took her hand, and slid the ring onto her ring finger. "Almost perfect. Perhaps the other finger would be a better fit, but I would rather you wear it on this one. Just for today, perhaps."

"Now, who is being cruel," Caroline remarked, looking at the enormous diamond on her engagement ring finger. It was a beautiful bright canary yellow oval, surrounded by several smaller white diamonds. Caroline didn't have much experience with diamonds of this size, but she thought it might be nearly five carats. "Talk about a fairytale, jeez. I assume it has a story. Stolen off a queen?"

"Not even stolen. And she wasn't a queen, she was a princess of a small principality that has long gone defunct. I won it quite fairly from the prince consort. A terrible whist player, but he had excellent taste in brandy."

"I'll bet the princess was thrilled when he lost it to you. Or did you manage to console her after cheating her out of it?"

"Caroline," Klaus looked affronted. "I would never insult you that way. The princess was sixty and asthmatic. Her fingers were far too fat for her to have ever worn that. It was merely part of the royal treasury."

"Which you probably compelled her husband to wager."

"Ah, well, yes. But I did not cheat at cards, I cannot stress that enough. That would have been dishonorable."

"You only played with him to win this," Caroline said, as she turned her finger this way and that way in the light. The diamond winked at her, bright and cheerful.

"Very perceptive. It was once part of a much larger stone. When it came out of the ground in South Africa a few hundred years ago, I was the first to own it. It was called the Sunstar, and an African shaman convinced me that it had magical properties, and that it could help me break the curse. That turned out to be false, of course. So I had it cut down into many smaller stones, and over time they ended up in various locations. I thought perhaps it would be entertaining to try and track them all down, but this is the only one I ever found again."

He took her hand in his, and looked at the ring. "So many of my hopes and dreams were wrapped up in this rock at one time, and it was a losing gamble, just like they all were. Even when I won, I lost. It seems right that this piece of sun should end up on your hand. After all, I have been hoping to make you my Queen of the Night, but that's not who you are, is it?"

"It's not?"

"No, Caroline. You are sunshine, forever sunshine. It's a foolish man who tries to capture sunlight, and keep it for himself." Klaus dropped her hand. "Perhaps I have been such a fool."

"No more foolish than me, really," Caroline said, with a shrug. "After all, I'm trying to catch the Big Bad Wolf, and keep him for myself."

"Ah, you have long since caught me. And keeping me would not be a problem at all. The problem, my darling Caroline, is that you are trying to tame me."

"Oh, yeah, " Caroline responded. "That part is not going so well yet, maybe. Emphasis on 'yet'. But you know what? Throw out everything I said earlier. I'm still Caroline Forbes," she said, coming close to him, and winding her arms around his neck, the ring flashing on her finger. She kissed him, once, twice, three times, happy to note how he responded to her despite himself. She leaned back and met his eyes, and added, "And 'unrealistic expectations' is still my middle name. Keep that in mind the next time you try to give up on us."

He laughed, he held her, he kissed her, and then he said, "Nine and a half more days, love. Come what may."


	14. animals

AN: Going out of town and might have iffy wifi, so I wanted to post this chapter even though it's shortish, and probably means the story will have an extra chapter at the end.

* * *

But Klaus was wrong. They didn't have nine and a half more days left for Caroline's experiment. They didn't even have one more day.

They didn't even have six more hours.

* * *

Caroline was surprised by how much she liked Indian food, but she was not surprised by how much Piper and Livia were fascinated by the Sunstar ring. The girls traded it back and forth, spinning it on their thumbs, and holding it up to see it sparkle under the lights of the restaurant. Klaus was occupied talking to John about Belgian hyperrealism, and didn't appear to notice.

"Oh, that's pretty," Annie remarked. "Did you buy that in Williamsburg? There's a girl there on Bedford Ave that does lovely stuff with citrines like that. I didn't know she made them so big, though."

"Klaus gave it to me, but I think he got it overseas somewhere. So, what's with the duffel bag with the giant bee on it?"

"The girls have a dance recital tonight, so we have to leave straight from here to the East Village, and the bag has their costumes in it. Oh, the ridiculous things we do as homeschoolers to make sure our kids socialize. I made the mistake of chatting up this woman at a homeschool co-op meeting, and now my poor girls have to dress up like bumblebees and buzz around a stage for a couple of hours."

"I'm not going," Little John interjected.

"Yes, you are," Annie responded. She turned back to Caroline, saying, "He hates it. I don't blame him."

"Well, he doesn't have to go. I'll watch him tonight."

"Oh, no - that's okay. He can suffer through it. And there's an ice cream party afterwards."

"I'll take him for ice cream later tonight. I hate to think of him sitting there so bored, and you guys will enjoy it more if he's not whining the whole evening."

"Can I stay with Caroline, too?" Piper asked. She was sliding the Sunstar ring from one index finger to the other, back and forth. Livia stood beside Piper's chair, mesmerized by the motion.

"Nice try, Piper. But you know if you miss another recital, Miss Cathy is going to doubt our committment to BumbleDance." Annie looked at Caroline. "It might run kind of late. You might have to put him to bed."

"I don't mind, he's pretty easy." Caroline ruffled Little John's hair, and he swatted at her hand.

"Easy," Annie snorted. "Right. Well, as you have noticed by now, I'm powerless in the face of offers to help. Firm believer that it takes a village to raise a kid, and if you want to volunteer to be a villager, then feel free. Not too much ice cream, though, or it'll be a lot harder to get him down to sleep."

"Only one scoop, I promise."

"Well, okay then."

"Whoop!" Little John said, raising his arms high, and in his exuberance knocking over Caroline's after dinner chai onto his shirt.

Annie immediately grabbed napkins and started mopping it up. "Regretting it yet?" she asked Caroline, with a sigh.

"Dearest wife? It is time to depart, I believe," John Dodd announced, standing up and scooping Livia into his arms. "Time for our fairy children to dance their fairy dance."

"Bumblebees, John. You keep forgetting." Annie took the Sunstar ring off of Piper's finger and handed it back to Caroline. Caroline slid it onto her ring finger, giving Klaus a small smile as she did so. He was watching her closely, with an expression she couldn't quite define.

Livia took her thumb out of her mouth just long enough to say, "Buzz buzz."

The girls and their parents took off for the subway, with goodbyes and hugs.

Klaus only raised one eyebrow when Little John joined Caroline on their walk back to the apartment.

"Again, Caroline?" Klaus asked, mildly. "Your kindheartedness is becoming a vice."

"I don't expect you to do anything. I'm done with hoping your big bad heart is going to be touched by the innocence of children."

"I'm touched by your innocence, love. Is that not good enough?"

"Maybe it is. Ugh, that guy across the street keeps looking at my ass."

"Where?" Klaus's head swiveled, his eyes narrowed.

"Oh, forget I said anything. He's actually looking at you, not me. Can't blame him for that, you're a very pretty man and you have a very pretty ass. Don't get testy."

"He looks vaguely familiar," Klaus remarked, halting on the sidewalk and staring down the young man and his companions. All four men turned away when he looked at them, and went into the hardware store they had been standing in front of.

"Well, you scared them off. That'll teach them to actually look at people walking around in public. Of all the nerve," Caroline said, with a small laugh. She linked one arm in Klaus's, and took Little John by the hand.

"Why didn't you kick their butts?" Little John complained.

"Because violence is never the answer, human child," Klaus said.

"Ha!" Caroline snorted. "You are being funny."

When they reached their building, Caroline said to him, "Just stay here in the vestibule with Little John for a second while I run in and grab him a clean shirt. I'm going to take him to the playground for a little while, and then out for gelato at the coffee shop."

But Klaus wasn't listening to her, he was looking down at his phone which had buzzed with a text message. "Hmmm. Yes, the two of you have fun."

When Caroline returned, she switched Little John's shirt for a clean one, and tossed the dirty one back into the Dodds's apartment. Klaus was still looking down at his phone, his brow furrowed.

"What's going on?" she asked him. Little John was standing stock still and completely silent, staring at the wall.

"Nothing. Kol was just letting me know that someone stopped by the Park Avenue building today looking for me. Most likely my art acquisitions expert, who has been on an assignment for me in Geneva. If he has returned this soon, I assume it means that he was successful. Kol sent him here to Queens."

"No, not what's going on with you- what's up with Little John?"

"He was being noisy and annoying, so I compelled him," Klaus said, absently.

"Oh, for God's sake. Undo it so we can go."

Klaus turned the boy, and said, "You are released. Go with Caroline and obey her."

"Kol shouldn't tell people where you are - I thought you were super stealth low profile guy."

"What do I have to fear, Caroline? Since my father's death, nothing and no one." He put the phone back in his pocket. "While you are playing good neighbor, I am going to be upstairs making some calls. I'll join you at the coffee shop, however, so let me know when you are heading that way."

"Will do." Caroline leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Later, darling."

Klaus grabbed her arm as she was moving away. "I like that, I think."

She smiled at him. "Do you? Maybe I'll do it more often then. It's the power of having a ring on this particular finger. Makes me feel all fiancee-ish." She gave him another wifely cheek peck, and then stepped away. "C'mon kiddo, let's go get dirty and fall down a bunch."

"Careful what you say to him, Caroline. He's compelled to obey you."

"Oh, right. Um, forget about getting dirty, Little John. Let's go and play safely on approved playground equipment in a clean and orderly fashion."

* * *

Little John was so well behaved that Caroline let him play longer than she meant to. It was almost dark when she finally called Klaus to let him know they were heading to the coffee shop.

"On our way . . . meet you there?"

"Yes."

"Hey, you remember those guys outside the hardware store? The ones that thought you had a cute butt?"

"Yes - do you see them again?"

"Yeah, they are across the street from the park. That's weird. They are just standing there."

Klaus's tone sharpened, as he said, "Hurry then."

"I doubt it means anything, don't be silly."

"Caroline-"

"Oh, fine."

Klaus met them at the corner, near the coffee shop. "Did they follow you?"

"Of course not." Caroline looked around, and the guys were nowhere to be seen. "See? Just a coincidence."

"I don't happen to believe in those, Caroline."

"Can I have stracciatella _and_ bacio _and _malaga_? _Please_?" _Little John asked, tugging on Caroline's arm as they walked into the shop.

"I have no idea what you just said," Caroline responded, as she studied the menu on the chalkboard above the counter.

"That is a disturbingly disgusting combination, so no, you may not," Klaus told him. "You can have the stracciatella and fruiti di bosco. That would be acceptable."

"I promised Annie one scoop! He'll never get to sleep."

Klaus raised an eyebrow, and Caroline sighed. "Oh, right. Of course, he will. Whatever."

They sat near a window, and Klaus looked out into the dark night with a frown.

"You feeling itchy?" Caroline asked him, holding a spoonful of her amarena gelato up for Little John to try.

"Whatever do you mean?"

"Well, even after Tyler became a hybrid, he still got sort of antsy and itchy on a full moon night."

"Hybrid? Like, a Prius? Did your friend become a car?" Little John asked.

"Don't ask questions with your mouth full," Klaus said to him. "In fact, don't ask questions at all. And no, Caroline, I don't get 'itchy' on a full moon. I spoke to Kol, and it sounds as though the man he sent to Queens to find me was not, in fact, my art acquisitions specialist."

"Oh. You think Tyler might be here in New York?"

"Tyler? Why would Tyler be here?"

"I don't know. Looking for me, maybe?"

"Kol knows what Tyler looks like, so no."

"So you think it was one of those guys from earlier - but I thought you could tell when vampires were around. You know, because of your wolf senses."

"Yes, of course I can. But those four were not vampires."

"Well, then it doesn't matter, does it? Four random humans." Caroline shrugged, and then took another bite of gelato.

"It's a full moon tonight, Caroline. And I can't, unfortunately, tell if someone is a werewolf just by looking at them. If I could, my harvest of them last summer would have gone much faster."

Little John's eyes were huge, and Caroline could tell he was dying to ask a question.

"Werewolves aren't real, no worries. Klaus is just, um, telling a story. Sort of." Caroline turned back to Klaus. "Then we should go, right? Just in case? It's already dark out."

"Yes, we may as well go back to the flat. We have an over sugared child to compel to sleep, and there is plenty of unfinished business between you and me to deal with. I'm feeling rather inspired by your earlier show of wifely devotion."

"Oh, yes, please. I hate leaving our business unfinished. Let's definitely go now."

It was a little chilly, especially for a summer's night out with a child wearing a short sleeved tshirt, but they only had to walk a few blocks.

The streets were not very crowded in this part of Astoria at any time of day, and Little John was able to zigzag his own path down the empty sidewalk. He was humming a song to himself as they walked, and he soon had Caroline humming, too. "What is that, the Oscar Meyer song?" she asked him, with a laugh. "I didn't even know that kids your age knew that one."

"Duh," Little John replied. "It's about hotdogs. I know every song about hotdogs."

"Yeah, but you're a vegetarian," Caroline reminded him.

Little John opened his mouth to respond, but the noise of growling stopped him. It stopped all of them.

Actually making it the final few blocks to the apartment building was going to be difficult, apparently. Considering there were three fully transitioned werewolves blocking their path.

"Oh, God," Caroline said. "These guys _don't_ look like vegetarians at all."


	15. cannonball

"Making a mistake, mates," Klaus said, putting himself in between Caroline and Little John, and the wolves. The largest one, black and huge, snarled at Klaus, his lips curled back and foam dripping from his mouth. The other two, grayer and only slightly smaller, paced beside him. "Making a fairly huge mistake."

Little John gave a shriek, and Caroline grabbed his shoulders, "It's okay. Be calm and stay quiet."

He immediately ceased shrieking. Caroline was very thankful that he had already been compelled to obey her.

Over his shoulder, Klaus said, quietly, "Take the boy, and run down that alley. I'll have their hearts out quick."

Caroline moved fast, taking Little John into her arms and vamp speeding down the side alley on their left. She couldn't just run out that way, though, because there was a high chain link fence spread between the buildings. Her purse slid off her arm and fell to the ground. She would have to climb, and it would only get in the way.

With the boy over her shoulder, she was starting to climb the fence when she heard a loud popping sound, and felt sharp pains in her back. The pain was too much. Caroline fell backwards, twisting so she wouldn't land on the child. She could feel the grit of gravel underneath her, as she managed to get on her knees to shield Little John. Caroline curved her body around the boy.

More popping noises, more pain - this time in her head. Caroline knew very well what this was. Wooden bullets. Small round ones. She bit her lip to keep from crying out. She didn't want to distract Klaus while he was dealing with the wolves. She was being peppered, though, and she couldn't help but moan.

She couldn't lift her head up, but she heard several footsteps (paw steps?) on the thin gravel of the narrow alley, and then a slavering, growling grey wolf was upon her. Caroline kicked out at him, and felt a terrible tearing pain in her leg. It was as though fire licked up her thigh. She knew this feeling, too.

She kicked out at the wolf again, and turned halfway around so she could lash out at the wolf with her arm. But a second grey wolf was on her, then, and Caroline was not quick enough to prevent that second one from catching Little John's hand in his mouth.

"No!" Caroline yelled, and through the haze of movement and fur, she could see Klaus yanking the first wolf off of her, his hand already in the wolf's chest. He tossed wolf and heart aside, and then grabbed the second wolf, and flung it - and it's heart- after the first.

Klaus came back to Caroline and the child quickly. Raising Caroline and cradling her in his arms, he held his split wrist to her mouth. Caroline shook her head, and pulled away from him. "No, the boy first. Please, Klaus, don't let him bleed out," she pleaded.

He moved over and pulled the shivering and shaking boy into his lap, feeding him from his wrist. Caroline got to her knees by Little John, and held his injured hand. "It's okay, baby. You need to drink. Oh, God," she said, looking at his hand. "They aren't growing back. They aren't growing back."

Little John's hand, bloodied and cold in her lap, was missing the last two fingers. The wounds where they had been bitten off healed before her eyes, but the fingers remained gone.

"I can't regrow fingers, Caroline, there are limits. I'm sorry," Klaus said, removing his wrist from the silent boy's mouth.

"No, no, no. This isn't happening," Caroline moaned, her hand moving to her head. She could feel the sweat gathering on her brow, could feel herself growing weak. The wood in her back and her head were burning her, but it was a minor pain compared to the agony of what was happening to her leg where she had been bitten.

Klaus moved the boy off of his lap, and pulled Caroline closer to himself. He vamped out and slit his wrist again. "Now you, my love. You must drink."

Caroline drank from his wrist, immediately feeling an ease in the pain of her leg. Klaus stroked her hair as she drank, then stopped suddenly. "You've been shot."

Caroline raised her head from his wrist, knowing that the bite was now healed. "Yes. My back as well . . . could you-?"

Klaus began to gently pull the bullets out of her skull from under her hair. "If the man who did this was not already dead, I would be happy to kill him again. I should have done it more painfully. Turn over, so I can reach the ones in your back."

"He's dead?" Caroline asked, her voice muffled by her position.

"Of course. They all are. I only wish I had been faster, and then I could have speared you entirely. I didn't realize there was a human stationed on the roof with a gun to ambush you." Klaus finished removing all of the bullets. "Better?"

"So much better." Caroline sat up, rubbing her back with her hand. "Oh, God, the bodies."

"I threw the human off the roof into the opening of the alley. If you think you can manage to drag him farther back, I will go and bring the black wolf in here as well. We will need a clean up team to be dispatched, though."

Klaus stood, and helped pull Caroline to her feet. She looked around, at the blood on the ground, the carnage of the wolf corpses. Klaus had not been gentle with them. "This doesn't even feel real. Why did they do this? Why were there werewolves in Queens?"

"I don't know, Caroline," Klaus replied. "But if I had to guess, I'd say someone had a grudge."

Caroline glanced back towards Little John, whose eyes were glassy and staring at the wall. He was still shaking and shivering. She looked at him, silently, and then turned back to Klaus and said, "Well, I guess this means this is done. It's all done. Our deal is off."

Klaus said nothing, he only nodded, his face drawn. He left the alley to go back to the street where the black wolf lay, and Caroline went to the dead man on the gravel, a shotgun beside him. She grabbed gun and man, and dragged them over the gravel to the very back of the alley, right next to the boy. A wallet fell out of the dead man's pocket, and she bent over to pick it up. Opening it, she read the driver's license that showed through a plastic window. "Oh, God."

Klaus dragged the black wolf and his two wolfy companions over to where she was. "What is it?"

"What's Marissa's last name?"

"Coykendall. Why?"

"Thats what I thought it was. We just killed her family." Caroline pointed at the dead man. "This is Dillon Coykendall."

"That does explain things. A grudge, indeed. They must have been tracking me for awhile, hoping that I would lead them to her."

"Or they thought she was dead, and they were only out for revenge." Caroline ran a hand through her hair. "I can't believe I forgot about Marissa and Jason. I completely forgot that you have two people enslaved back home. I'm such an idiot."

Caroline looked up at Klaus, tears forming in her eyes. "You have to call them, and let them go. You have to do it tonight so they can go home to their families - or what is left of their families. It isn't right, and you know it isn't right."

"My hybrids," Klaus said, softly. "A thousand years went into their making. They are miracles of creation. My creation. The closest I have ever come to being a god."

"Don't," Caroline said, in disgust. "Don't even say that. You were a selfish bastard for even making that your dream in the first place, and you know it. Let them go."

Klaus said nothing.

Caroline heard a whimper, and she turned back to Little John, whose shaking had escalated. "Oh, God, I think he's going into shock. Can we compel someone out of shock?"

Klaus knelt beside the boy, and looked at him. "I don't think so, no."

"Then he needs a hospital, now." As Caroline put her arms around the child, the smell of his blood hit her. "Oh, no." Caroline felt her face begin to vamp, and she tried to breathe calmly. "Oh, no no no."

Klaus took the boy from her arms, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Caroline moved away, covering her face with her hands and pressing herself against the brick wall. She tried to focus on the smell of dirt and gravel, and the gritty feel of the brick of the building beside her. Anything but how sweet the boy's blood smelled.

Klaus touched her on the shoulder, gently. "There was a gas explosion in Kew Gardens, so it will take an ambulance awhile to get here."

She turned her face to him, unvamping. "Then I will carry him - where's the nearest place?"

Klaus did a search on his phone. "Mount Sinai has a facility on 30th Avenue here in Queens. A little over half a mile walk. But you are not carrying him, Caroline."

"You have a better idea?"

"Yes, I will take him." Klaus picked up the shaking boy, and then stood up. "You know your control is very admirable, but let's not put it to the test tonight. You will never forgive yourself if you feed on the boy. You will never forgive me if I let you."

"And you are much faster than me," Caroline said, taking a deep breath. "Go. I'll meet you there."

After Klaus left with the child, Caroline took a few seconds to assess her situation. Her yellow flowered halter dress from Target was stained with blood, and there were bullet holes in the back of it. She located and retrieved her small purse from beneath the fence. Her phone inside was still intact, and none the worse for having had wolves and vampires fighting near it and on it.

She sent a text to Elijah to let him know that they were attacked - and that there were bodies to be removed before somebody discovered them.

Elijah responded that he was sending Fitz and some other people right away. He hoped that she was okay. And if she wasn't okay, he hoped she would feel free to come to him tonight, or anytime.

It was nice to have a big brother to clean up your messes for you.

Part of her just wanted to stay there, with her head between her knees, waiting for Fitz to come. Not the cuddliest of vampires, but she still bet that he'd let her cry on his shoulder for awhile if she needed to.

Then Caroline sent a quick text to her mom - just an 'I love you', but she felt like it needed to be said at that moment.

Now, she was ready to go. She turned at the head of the dark alley, and looked back towards the wolves and the human. Marissa's family, their bodies in a pile on the dirt and gravel. "I'm sorry," Caroline whispered. "I'm sorry."

* * *

She had to ask random strangers for directions three times before she finally found the hospital.

The waiting area of the emergency room was chaotic, with ambulances bringing in victims from the Kew Gardens explosion. There was a flurry of activity, and lots of blood. Caroline held her breath until she could make it to a restroom.

She stayed in a bathroom stall for awhile, struggling for control. Then, once she decided she wasn't a threat to anyone, she came out and tried to clean herself up at the sink. She was pale and a little bloodied, but not quite the hot mess she had expected to see. She did the best she could to wash the blood from her dress, turning the yellow flowers into orange and brown splotches. It wasn't pretty, but it would do.

There wasn't anything she could do about the scattered bullet holes in the back of the dress, though. As she tugged on the dress to see how bad it was in the back, the overhead lights in the bathroom caught the cheery facets of the Sunstar on her finger and reflected the flashing in the mirror. Caroline felt like crying again. The giant ring was so incongruous in that place and time. It no longer felt like it belonged to her at all. She certainly didn't deserve it. Not after what she had so carelessly brought into the Dodds' lives. What a dangerous joke she was, with her optimism and bullheadedness. How wrong she had been.

An hour had passed since the wolves had attacked them. She wondered if Klaus had thought to inform Annie and John that their son was in the hospital, less than whole.

Caroline heard John Dodd's deep voice almost as soon as she exited the ladies' room. Well, that answered that question. She followed the sound of his raised angry voice down a hallway, only stopping to compel a nurse that questioned her presence there. She could also hear Klaus responding to John, in a small private room near the end of the hall.

Klaus was saying, "You are not worried about your son's injury. You know that he will be fine. You are perfectly calm about it."

John responded, "My son will be fine. I don't know why I was so upset when I came in. I do apologize for yelling at you."

"Think nothing of it."

Just as Caroline was about to enter the room, she heard John say something though, that made her pause. "Was it really a dog that got my boy - or was it something else?"

"I don't know what you mean, friend," Klaus replied, quietly.

"Well, since I know you are a vampire, it makes me question everything you tell me. And I know about the creatures of the night," John paused, and then added, "_Friend."_

Caroline froze. She sank down into a hard gray plastic chair right on the other side of the wall from where the men were talking. She sat quietly, trying to not even let the chair creak.

"You appear to know things you shouldn't know," Klaus answered, his voice like the smoothest steel. "How is that?"

"I had a drawing master many years ago, someone who had once been a man, but was no longer. Someone who had to live in the shadows. How many years ago is not relevant. Where I met him is not relevant. But he used to tell me stories about you - terrifying stories. The kind that made my hair stand on end."

"How do you know they were about me, mate?"

"He had a drawing of you hanging in his study. It's taken me a few days to remember why you looked so familiar. He called you 'Nick', you see, so I didn't make the connection. And you walk in the sun, so . . . well, it seemed that I was just being fanciful. But the way you talk about people from the far past as though you knew them . . . that's the way he talked, too."

"My dear old friend Yakov," Klaus murmured. "So, he kept that drawing all these years."

"You do remember him, then - but I knew him as Jacob Liebster. He was remarkable."

"Was?" Klaus's tone was sharp.

"Still is, as far as I know."

"I gave him a gift, one that he was never quite grateful for. A momentary weakness on my part, and over three hundred years of regret for the both of us."

"In case you were wondering, he still hates you for turning him."

"I am not surprised. A strange man - one who would rather have died of a horrible wasting disease rather than have his friend save his life. And oh, we were friends. I called him 'brother', and I thought he would have said the same of me. I was wrong." Klaus sighed. "I would like to see him again, though. Where did you say he was living now?"

"I wouldn't tell you even if I knew - and of course, he's probably changed his name several times over since I last saw him. The poor man was terrified that you would find him someday . . . he seemed to think he had to run from you the whole rest of his existence. He said you were the greatest monster the world had ever known, all darkness and anger."

"I could make you tell me where you last saw him."

"Well, I'm sure that you could. But I would appreciate very much if you didn't."

"And Wally was still with him when you knew him?"

"That was something else that struck me. How a man of your age could possibly know that Wally Neuzil, Egon Schiele's former mistress, dead for nearly a century, wasn't a real redhead and had grubby elbows. Impossible, unless you once knew her."

"As you did."

"I was very fond of her, although she was eccentric and emotional, and you never quite knew what she was going to do next. But I thought she was charming. She was still refusing to wear shoes most of the time. I spent many evenings at their house in . . . well, nevermind where. And sometimes I would keep them company during the day when they couldn't go out anywhere. But Jacob and Wally never told me the story of how they came together, or why they were on the run from you. I assumed it was a love triangle gone awry."

"Of course, it wasn't," Klaus scoffed. "I could never have loved her, she was a horrible child. But she was important to Yakov, and so when she was dying, I turned her. I did it for him. Once again, he was ungrateful."

After a small pause, Klaus continued, "You may as well know the whole of it. There is time before your son wakes up from the sedatives, and I don't tell this story very often. Even though it's a painful one for me, I find myself nostalgic to talk about Yakov to someone who actually knew him."

"You said you met Jacob over three hundred years ago. I find that difficult to wrap my mind around."

"Ancient are my days, John Dodd. And we were friends in a village outside of Krakow, where my brothers and sister and I built an estate in 1689. Yakov and I used to sketch together, hunt together, wench together in town. He was one of the few men who was not afraid of me, one of the few humans who did not seem to shy away from me in all my many moods. When I would get angry, he would simply laugh, and tell me to stop being an idiot. He would invite me to eat with his family, to dance with his sisters, to celebrate his human joys with him. I loved him as much as I have ever loved any human. And then he got sick, and I could not bear the thought of losing my closest friend forever. I turned him, against his will. He did not deal with the transition very well, and his reaction to it enraged me."

"He told me that you killed his whole family, and all of his neighbors. That . . . that can't be true."

"Indeed, it is. His mother, his father, his three pretty sisters. Every neighbor in a ten kilometer radius. I was upset. It happens to me sometimes. You are not afraid of me, though."

"I am not afraid of you, though." John repeated obediently.

Caroline wished Klaus would stop compelling the man. Just tell the story and let the reactions happen as they would. It was so habitual for him, she wondered if sometimes he didn't even realize he was doing it.

"In 1915, we met again after over two hundred years of being separated. He found me in London, actually, and begged my forgiveness. I was happy to have my friend again, and let it all be bygones. We traveled to Vienna together because Yakov wanted to meet Gustav Klimt. So we were there for two years, dodging the guns of war, consorting with artists and philosophers in the coffee houses. I did not care for Klimt, he was a tedious man. But Klimt introduced us to Schiele, and Schiele was a marvel. A wonderful discovery. Of course, we met Wally at that time, and Yakov fell for her. I never understood why. She was loyal to her Egon, though, and didn't consider Yakov until Egon cast her aside to marry his respectable new wife."

"I know that Wally got sick sometime later. Art history tells us as much."

"Yakov was beside himself when he knew Wally was dying of fever. I turned her for him because he was not brave enough to do it himself. Once again, it was a messy transition. I thought Yakov would be angry enough to leave me again, but he was calm about it, even when Wally became a very inconvenient newborn vampire prey to violent tempers. Yakov was too calm. Little did I know that he had only found me and brought me to Vienna in order to betray me. It was not long after I turned Wally that he led me directly to where my father was waiting for me."

"Your father? Good God, man, how is that a betrayal?"

"Ah, you have no idea. I barely escaped with my life. So yes, my dear friend Yakov has excellent reasons to fear me. I would kill him where he stands." Klaus corrected himself, saying softly, "Or perhaps I wouldn't. I did love him, and he was my brother. So no, perhaps I wouldn't."

"If you are the one Jacob told me about, then I don't even understand what you are doing here. And I don't understand what happened tonight to my son."

"As to why I am here, you would have to ask my darling Caroline. And tonight . . . no, your boy did not lose his fingers to a dog. He lost them to a werewolf. I assume that Yakov told you about werewolves? Three of them attacked us tonight, and Caroline kept your boy from being killed. She protected him with her own body."

"How did she do that? Is Caroline -? No, not sweet Caroline. I left my children in her care, and she's a monster like you?"

"Not exactly like me, but yes. And yet, no . . . Caroline is unlike me in so many ways. If I can be best represented by anger and darkness, then she is kindness and light personified. She would rather rip out her own heart than see one of your children harmed. Your son's injuries . . . she will most likely leave me because of them. Your son may have lost his fingers tonight, but I - well, I cannot even tell you what I have lost."

Caroline stood, quietly, careful not to bump the chair with her bag. She walked down the hall, through the lobby and out of the hospital. She kept walking and walking, only stopping to send a single text message. Four words. They should be enough to bring him to her.

* * *

"Hi there, News Chopper Four, fancy meeting you here again," Caroline said, as she waved from her perch on one of the cables on the Brooklyn Bridge. "I wonder if Damon will be watching this on YouTube tomorrow morning? I should have brought a sign to hold up that read 'No, he's not compelling me, stop worrying'. Well, at least I'm wearing my own clothes this time, and not something fancy from Elena's closet."

She felt a vibration shoot along the wires, and looked down to see Klaus making his way up the cables.

"You do that better than I do, much more graceful," she told him when he reached her. "But you certainly have made me wait. Was my text not explanatory enough?"

"You only said 'meet me on high', Caroline. I went to the roof deck in Astoria first. I should have realized that wouldn't be nearly high enough for you. Also, I had things to arrange."

"The clean up crew - did they find the alley before too many people stumbled on the bodies?"

"Yes, and all witnesses have been compelled. I also had to arrange transportation for us, and Fitz is making Tedrick and Michelle go into Mallory's apartment to pack our things. I assume that you do not want to go back there."

"God, no. I can't even imagine facing Annie and John again." Caroline looked down at the bridge surface, where she could see a town car parked beside several police vehicles. "If Fitz is at the apartment, then who is down there with the car?"

"That is Carlos, returned from the Berkshires."

"He doesn't look that scary." Caroline leaned over and waved down at the burly vampire. "Hey, Carlos! Nice to finally meet you. Sort of."

Carlos gave her a small salute.

"Can I toss you my purse and phone?"

He held his hands up.

"Carlos is not much of a talker," Klaus remarked, with a tight smile.

Caroline leaned over as far she could, and dropped her small bag the fifty feet down to him. Several police officers ducked, but Carlos caught it neatly.

"And my shoes are down there somewhere," she added.

"He already put them in the car." Klaus looked around, the night wind ruffling his hair. "You chose a different side this time."

"Well, variety is the spice of life."

"I was not anticipating that, I assumed you would be on the other side. So when you hit the water, make sure you go under the bridge, and back towards the opposite direction about a hundred yards along the Manhattan shore. That's where I had Fitz park the Audi, with a change of clothes. It should confuse the rescue boats and divers, too."

"Yep, I can do that. How did you get past all the cops?"

"I compelled them to believe I was your therapist. They will leave us alone up here."

Caroline laughed. "My therapist? That's not entirely untrue. You're the closest thing I have had since I started this mental crisis five days ago."

"I have tried my best, although it was clearly not good enough. So, Caroline? I am here. It's time for you to get on with it."

"With what? Not ready to jump yet."

"No, with breaking my heart. I assume that is why we are here."

"Wow, you assumed wrong. Like, really wrong. No, this is more about me than about you, although it's kind of about us, too. It's really about what an absolute idiot I am, though, for thinking I could undo a thousand years and remake you."

"I did warn you."

"I know. I am naive, and I am stubborn, and I am a little bit crazy, and sometimes? Sometimes I miss the big picture completely. It was never about changing you, it was always about changing me. Because you knew. You knew we couldn't live happily among humans without consequences. I was the dumb one."

"You were listening at the hospital, weren't you? I thought you were there. You heard me telling John Dodd about my old friend Yakov."

"Another experiment gone horribly wrong. It's not that you don't care enough about humans . . . it's that, in the past, you have cared too much. You cared so much for that one man that you ruined him."

"We are deathbringers, Caroline. Chaos engines. Destroyers. Think about your own community in Mystic Falls - that peaceful town. And what happened to it, to your friends and family, after vampires took an interest in your human lives?"

"I know that now. I hear you. We are monsters who leave bloodshed and terror in our wake, forever changing every place we touch," Caroline said softly. "We do humans the greatest favor when we just ignore them, and leave them alone."

"Yes. But that is a lesson we each learn in our own time. And it is the kind of lesson that can only be learned the hardest of ways."

"Poor Little John. He'll never be a concert pianist or violinist now."

"Caroline, please. Having met the younger John Dodd, I can safely say he was never going to be a concert anything."

"Totally not the point. Oh, my God, I made you babysit children. You, the greatest monster the world has ever known. I made you hang out with hipsters, and teach grade schoolers to paint apples. Like that was going to accomplish anything at all. You must have been laughing at me for the past few days."

"It's not as though I don't see the world differently with you by my side, my darling girl. My happy, glorious Caroline, with your way of seeing only what is bright and wonderful. With your honesty and your kindness. Elijah would say that you help me mind my manners better than anyone else ever has. You have probably saved a couple of lives, in fact, by acting as my conscience since Friday."

"So, I'm your Jiminy Cricket, trying to make you into a real boy? Is that what you are saying?"

"I suppose so. If Pinnochio was madly in love with his Jiminy, and wanted to make love to him every second of the day - which I don't recall from the cartoon."

Caroline smiled. "I didn't even think you would catch that reference."

"Unlike the majority of my siblings, I haven't spent the past century in a box."

"Probably not the best time to be reminding me of that." Caroline glanced over at him, at the way the lights from the bridge were gilding the scruff on his jawline. The way his eyes, so serious, so dark at that moment, were fixed on her. "Did you call Marissa?"

"Yes. The man I recognized, the larger black wolf, was her older brother Brandon. When I captured her pack at a party in Portland, he was the one who got away from me. The man with the wooden bullets was her younger brother. Her family had hoped he would never trigger the curse."

"The other two wolves?"

"Her cousins, apparently."

"And you have released her - and Jason, as well?"

"Yes," Klaus answered, quietly. "They are returning to their homes and their families."

"Thank you. I had to know that." Caroline looked at him, with serious eyes. "I'm surprised, though, that Marissa's brothers didn't think to kidnap me to use as leverage to get you to release her. If they have been watching us at all, they should have known what we are to each other."

"The end result would have been the same. Three dead werewolves and a dead human. They clearly had no real concept of who they were dealing with."

"I know. We should really hang a sign around your neck telling everyone that you are an unkillable killing machine not to be messed with. Might save some misunderstandings." Caroline looked away from him. "And speaking of being unkillable, I figured it out, you know."

"Figured what out?"

"The other day, when you said you could let me go without too many casualties when the day came . . . I thought you were just talking about throwing a slaughtery tantrum, but you weren't."

"No, I wasn't."

"You were talking about yourself. You were talking about the silver stake."

"I've never had such a convenient method of killing myself close to hand before, Caroline. It does bring the possibility of mortality into sharper focus. The idea fascinates me, probably much the same way as having me compel you fascinates you."

"It would mean my death as well."

"And all of your idiot friends, yes." Klaus gave her a dark look. "I would not have done it, not with knowing that it meant your death. It was an idea that my mind could not help but play with, though. Dangerous thoughts are often more appealing to us monsters. I think you are figuring that out slowly."

Caroline shivered. "Figuring so many things out, actually. About myself, about you . . . and there's an us now. There's always going to be an us."

"There is?" Klaus's voice was quiet, but the tone had a hopeful note in it.

"Yes, there is. I thought what I was doing was weaving you into a community, weaving you into humanity - again, how stupid of me. But what we were really doing was weaving you into me, and me into you. I don't think we can ever be untangled now."

"So you have made your choice."

"There wasn't a choice to be made, unless it was the one to walk seven miles in the rain to your doorstep. I've been yours completely, since . . . I don't know, maybe since Saturday afternoon? Friday night, even. I just had to come to terms with it myself. That's what all of this has been about, I just didn't realize it. Everything else was noise and distractions, so I wouldn't have to ask myself what the hell was going on here."

"And you think you can love me someday?"

Caroline laughed. "Oh, you silly man, I already do. That's what I've been trying to say. And I stopped caring about what loving you says about me - that I belong to the Big Bad Wolf, and he belongs to me."

"I've never belonged to anyone before," Klaus said, his eyes still searching her face. "So that, perhaps, is something you can teach me after all. We move forward from here."

"Yes, this is our beginning," Caroline agreed. "But there is something I have to do first."

She balanced herself carefully, and faced into the wind coming off the dark waters. She surveyed the water, with the city on either side. She could hear the helicopter, as it moved a little further away from them, buffeted by the wind. She could hear the police below on the surface of the bridge, as they speculated and placed bets on whether or not she was going to jump. She thought about all of the many lives surrounding them in this giant city on either side of this long bridge- all of those lives, ongoing and messy.

Finally, she said,"You can give me the world."

"Yes, and I will, my love. I will lay the world before you, and you will be it's queen."

"You can give me the world," Caroline repeated. "But you can't give me the life that Annie Dodd has. I didn't want the world. I never wanted to be a queen. I wanted _that. _I wanted to help potty train Livia. I wanted to watch Piper dance like a bumblebee. I wanted Annie to teach me how to knit ugly sweaters. I wanted her to show me how to be a mother. And that is never going to happen. I will never make dinner for my own kids, never tell them pirate bedtime stories, never have a small human child call me 'mom'. It is never going be my life, and so I need to let it go."

She took a deep breath. "My mother and my friends. My idiot friends that are my dearest family. They are never going to understand you and me. Matt will be angry, Tyler will be hurt, Bonnie will be cold, Elena and my mom will always worry. And Damon and Stefan will plot and scheme and try to find ways to break us apart. They are never going to be joyful about us being together, never going to celebrate the fact that I am finally and truly in love. But it doesn't matter how they feel, because this is you and me. So I need to let that go."

"You and me together," she added, with another deep breath. "I worry that the next time you lose your temper with someone, I won't be able to keep you from killing them. Because every time that happens, I will feel like I am failing you, and failing us. I worry that, with you, I will become so divided from humanity that I will no longer be able to keep myself from killing, as well. That I will change into someone less human, and more monster than I am now. But you have faith in my control, and I need to have more faith in yours. More faith in what we can be together. So I am letting that go, too."

Caroline flexed her feet on the cable, feeling it move and sway beneath her. She turned towards Klaus, and reached out for his hand. "Okay, now I am ready."

Klaus's gentle smile turned into a frown, as he looked at her fingers entwined with his. "Where is the Sunstar?"

"Oh, yeah, sorry . . . on the way to the bridge, I gave it to a homeless guy named Sammy, and he gave it to his friend Rhonda. I regret that, now. Totally should not have done that."

Klaus said, with a sigh. "I will retrieve it."

"Thought you might. We doing this with a countdown, or without?"

"Without."

"Wait - is it ridiculously cheesy to do it holding hands?"

"You are about to leap into the East River for the second time in twenty four hours_, _and you are concerned about looking cheesy?"

"Well, it's going to be on the news and on YouTube, and everything."

"We are holding hands, Caroline," Klaus said, firmly. "I'm afraid if I let go of you, you really will turn into a mermaid, and I will never see you again. You will swim to a cave under Liberty Island, and decide to live there."

"I'm not going anywhere unless it's with you. Making this leap, and every leap with you. For always."

"Well, then. Now."

And with that, Caroline and Klaus jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge and into the East River together.

* * *

AN: This one was a BIG chapter because the last one was so short. And we have only one more chapter to go! Really just a kind of epilogue left. A research note- Wally Neuzil died in 1917 of scarlet fever at age 24, less than a year before Schiele and his wife also died of the Spanish influenza. She had been Schiele's mistress and model since she was seventeen, and Schiele died without even knowing that Wally was dead also. His paintings and drawings of Wally are definitely among his absolute best stuff. I've always been interested in her relationship with Schiele, so I wanted to borrow her for this story. I don't actually have any information as to whether or not she was a real redhead, but it seemed like the kind of thing Klaus would have noticed.


	16. epilogue: simple song

AN: One of my trademark sappy endings in 1 . . . 2 . . . 3 . . .

* * *

The next morning right after dawn, Caroline made Klaus take her out of New York using as many bridges as possible. When they crossed through Staten Island in the silver Audi, he pointed out to her where Elijah once owned a house on the waterfront in the 1670s. There was a ferry station there now. Just as she was about to ask Klaus where he had spent the majority of that decade, she was distracted by the flash of the Sunstar on her finger.

She waved it around in front of the window. "Oh, look at how pretty it is in the morning sunlight. Thank you for getting it back for me."

"Would have been much easier if you had just allowed me to compel them to return it, instead of bribing them to do so."

"I know - but remember how happy Rhonda's face was when you checked her and Sammy into the presidential suite at the St Regis?"

"And how unhappy the concierge's face was. Again, easier if you had just let me compel the staff, as well. They know me there, Caroline. By nightfall, it'll be all over town that the Lord Niklaus took a strange interest in a transvestite and her pimp."

"Wait- Rhonda was a-? Oh. So that's why she could only get the ring on her pinky. Well, no matter, she was still very happy. We should call the front desk this morning and send up a bottle of champagne to them. And as for compulsion, I've decided that you rely way too much on it. It's your emotional crutch, so I'm kicking it away."

"This from the woman that made poor Tedrick think she was his best friend. And how many times did you compel Annie Dodd?"

"Okay, point taken. So I need to be a lot less casual about mind control, too. We'll do it together."

"I thought we had moved past you trying to fix me, Caroline."

"This is not about fixing you, this is about us helping each other to make tiny little behavioral improvements, which is totally different, and totally the kind of thing mature couples do in a mature relationship. And I'm also altering the time horizon. Two weeks? Ridiculous. As they teach you in project management, you take phase one and do a post-mortem, and then make your alterations for phase two. Well, we have done our post mortem on phase one of our relationship, so now it's time to adjust."

"And you understand the nuances of project management because-?"

"Shut up. I read a book last summer. You think all of those events and committees at Mystic Falls High managed themselves? Please. That was all me."

"So what is your adjusted time horizon?"

"I don't know what would be the _most_ ideal . . . but I think a thousand years is probably reasonable to start with, don't you?"

"Hmm. I'd have to say that is perfectly acceptable." Klaus reached over and turned the radio on. He settled on Studio 54, where Donna Summers was Loving To Love You, Baby.

Caroline snorted. "You must be joking. I thought you had a grudge against the 70s anyway," she said, reaching over and switching the dial to Z100. "Oh, baby, you are a firework. Sing it, Katy. Anyway, at the end of our first thousand years together, we will regroup and evaluate how it is going. But some obvious things are going to be non-negotiable right off the bat."

Klaus sighed, as he eased the Audi out of a traffic snarl and into a different lane. "You may as well tell me everything now."

"Well, you know that thing you do when you get really mad at somebody, and you kill their family and all of their neighbors? Surprise, surprise, that's not okay with me. And neither is that thing you do where you sacrifice people on a rock for your own selfish gain, or where you compel them to bite their girlfriends - which you have done twice in the past year, now that I think about it. No kidnapping, torturing, or draining my friends of blood. No forcing my friends to perform spells for you. No trying to burn anyone's house down. Absolutely no enslaving people. I'm going to have a talk with Elijah about what he is doing to Fitz and Carlos, too, because that isn't right either. He should know better. Oh, and no more daggering your siblings and sticking them in a box - unless, of course, the sibling in question is named Kol, in which case go nuts. And lastly, you had better not get all 'I am the Lord Niklaus, I am the Big Bad Wolf' with me, because I won't put up with it."

Caroline stopped, and thought for a second, and then added, "Except in the bedroom, where it's completely appropriate, and I definitely like it. But overall? Your life is about to get a little less selfish and a whole lot less killery, just so you know. But that's okay, because you did those things when you were broken and alone, and you aren't broken and alone anymore. I'm here now, and you won't even miss any of that stuff."

"You might want to type that list up, and post it on the refrigerator, Caroline. I can't possibly remember all of that."

"Ha ha, so funny. You aren't going to think it's quite such a joke when I actually do that. And I am going to laminate a card for your wallet that basically says 'Don't be an asshole' as a reminder."

Caroline's phone began to buzz, and she sighed when she saw who it was. "And so it begins," she remarked. "Would be nice to have the next few hours free from my idiot friends, but no."

"Hey Damon, what's up?" Caroline said, answering the phone as cheerfully as possible.

"Again, Caroline? Is this going to become a new hobby for you? Because if it is, we've got plenty of bridges in Mystic Falls you can jump from. Well, we've got one, anyway - but it's a very nice one, and recently renovated. So you may as well come home."

"I am coming home, Damon. Or as you would say, I'm coming the fuck home. We're on our way right now."

"Hallefreakinlujah. How'd you get Klaus to jump with you last night, anyway? _You_ compelling him these days?

"Yes, in a manner of speaking. No, actually I think he's just become reconciled to my brand of crazy, and being crazy together is so much better than being crazy alone."

"So I guess that means you are bringing your new boyfriend home with you."

"Yes, Damon, I'm bringing my new boyfriend home with me."

"Hmmm. Interesting."

"What, are you going to be grumpy about this?"

"Honey, I'm the least of your problems if this is an actual thing you have decided to do. There are folks here who are going to be far more grumpy about it than me."

"They are all just going to have to suck it up, and learn to deal, got it? You can tell them I said so."

"Aye aye, you are the captain of your own destiny. Feel free to fuck it up if you want to. You going to be in my office bright and early tomorrow?"

"Well . . . "

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

"Monday, okay? As bright and early as you want. I just need a few days to recover, because . . . well, this particular journey of self-discovery has been all kinds of intense." With the phone up to her ear, Caroline gave a little wave to New York behind her as they crossed over the Goethals Bridge into Elizabeth, New Jersey.

"Oh, by all means, take a vacation from your vacation. Or should I say 'sexcation'?"

"Ew. You are gross. Don't ever say that again."

"Watch out when you get back, by the way. Bonnie has a plan to hoodoo Klaus right out of your system."

"She can try all she likes, but I doubt it will work."

"Like that is it? Well, that's just awesome. And in case my sarcasm isn't translating over the phone, I mean the opposite of that."

"Goodbye, Damon."

She ended the call without waiting for his response.

Klaus gave her a sideways look.

"What?" she asked him. "Go ahead and say it."

"This internship, Caroline, might put a crimp in our travel plans."

"We have travel plans?"

"Rome, remember? I want to kiss you in the Colosseum, and tell you that I love you in the Forum. And there are many fountains to be danced upon. Also, Rome is even more of a vampire town than New York, so there are a thousand ways of enjoying oneself there."

"Yeah, not going to happen. Not for awhile, anyway, because I have plans of my own. Things to do, it's going to be a busy summer. You are going to have to settle for kissing me at the Grill, and telling me that you love me on Main Street in Mystic Falls. We can find our own nighttime vampire fun."

"Enlighten me about your busy summer, please."

"Well, I _have_ to get to work on the fundraising website for the pediatric oncology center on Monday so it can be up and running before the end of this month. No more putting it off. Elijah pledged nearly 60% of the cost, but we have to make up the rest ourselves. And it's a good idea to get the community involved, that way they feel a commitment to the project and to the center itself once it opens. So I've got two, maybe three, benefits to plan for this summer to kick things off," she paused when he lifted an eyebrow. "Okay, what's that look for?"

"Ah, nothing. You just sound very much like Caroline Forbes again, that's all."

"I know, right? I don't think that's a bad thing. I think it's a very good thing. Anyway, I was hoping to do a dance, maybe, for the first fundraising event. Damon promised me that I could have a cotillion at the boarding house, to make up for how he and Elena ruined prom - but actually, maybe we should do it at your house, instead. It's definitely a better facility for dancing. Would that be okay with you?"

"My house? I was thinking of it as 'our' house, Caroline. And of course, you can, you can do anything you like there. You could have a ball every night, just as long as I'm your dance partner."

"Oh, maybe we should talk about that 'our house' thing."

"Caroline -" Klaus said, in a warning tone.

"No, wait- I'm not saying never, I'm just saying not now. I have to go home to my mom, I just have to. I owe her that much. And, well, it's kind of complicated in Mystic Falls for me. The Council and half the town know that I'm a vampire . . . if I move in with you, they might suspect you are one, too. And for those that _don't_ know about me, isn't it kind of shocking for us to live together? I just graduated from high school, and you just finished running for mayor. It'll be a scandal."

"That's human thinking. Let it go," Klaus said. "I won't live in that house alone, and I certainly won't live without you anymore."

"You aren't totally alone- you do have Rebekah." At his dark look, she conceded, "Okay, not the same thing. But it does raise yet another obstacle, you know. Rebekah and I living under the same roof? I don't think so."

"Fine. I'll just dagger her, and stick her in a box. We can use her as the tv stand."

"Oh, great, you are already forgetting the rules. Can't we just find her an apartment somewhere? Or send her to college?Rebekah might like to go to college, maybe. A college far far far away. Is there a University of Mongolia?"

"We can compromise so that you can spend some more time with your mother before you move in, but I'm afraid you will just have to learn to get along with my sister."

"Awesome," Caroline said with a sigh. "But that's okay, I can add that to my personal list of behavioral improvements. Not staking Rebekah when she annoys me, and not getting pissed off when she stakes me. Which she did at a prom planning meeting only a few weeks ago, you know. Going to be a challenge."

"But you rise to every challenge, my love. Amazingly so, actually. In the past five and a half days, you cycled through at least four philosophical movements, which is challenge enough for anyone."

"I did what?"

"Well, setting aside the fact that your whole life has been a paen to Kant's Categorical Imperative, you obviously had a Heideggerian realization on stage at graduation last Friday when you questioned your state of being. Then a Sartrean moment on Saturday when you followed your new friend home to Queens, and made us become art teachers. It took you until Monday to perform your Kierkegaardian leap, so apparently Sunday was your day of rest. But then on the bridge on Tuesday, you quite perfectly illustrated uncovering the Nietzschean granite self."

"I did what?"

"Do you really want me to explain each one? It might take us the rest of this roadtrip. Honestly, it might take the rest of the summer, but I'd be happy to do so."

"No, skip the first few and just explain the last one. Nietzsche says what?"

"Nietzsche said there are social accretions layered on top of the bedrock of our true self. I'm simplifying greatly here, of course. He said we needed to sift ourselves through a sieve, and whatever remains is really and truly us, without - what did you call it last night? Noise and distractions. The granite self remains when you strip everything away. The granite self is what can't be shaken off when all else is. Or, if you like, you can say it was a Socratic moment, one where everything is called into questioned. The unexamined life is not worth living - and you can now say that you have examined yours."

"Last night, I let many things go."

"That was your sieve moment- an abbreviated one, but effective. And what was left behind as your bedrock, love? All of your optimism and courage, obviously. And whatever it is inside of you that lights you up, and makes the world around you just that much more glorious. You couldn't shake that off."

"My love for my family and friends. My love for you," Caroline added softly.

"So happy to have survived the sieve, my darling bobcat. It would take most people a lifetime to touch upon so many large life moments, and you traversed the bridge of philosophy in less than a week."

"Well, I am Caroline Forbes, Overachiever Extraordinaire."

"That you are."

"Who needs to go to college, when I have you? It's like I'm sleeping with an entire department of professors - only a whole lot less slutty of me. Not that college is a part of my long term plan, anyway."

"Do you have one?"

"Oh, yes. For now, I'm going to focus on learning everything possible about town administration. I might have to keep a certain distance from humans in general, but I will find a way to make everyone's lives better through public service. I already have a list at home of twenty different things that need to be changed immediately. That's how I am going to be a good neighbor to the humans and monsters in our town. After all, Damon isn't going to want to be mayor forever, and in ten or fifteen years, it's going to be my turn. I'm going to be an _amazing_ mayor. I'm going to have the citizens of our town saying 'Mayor Salvatore, who?' Mayor Forbes is going to kick serious ass."

"And us?"

"Well, we belong to each other, remember? We are all tangled up. So whatever I am a part of, you are a part of, too - well, as much as you want to be. I'm not going to be forcing you to do a bunch of stuff you don't want to do, and seeing you do that pouty thing with your lip all the time." Caroline paused, and then smacked herself in the forehead. "Oh, my God, I'm such a liar. Of course_, _I'm going to make you do things you don't want to do. Probably lots of things, and there's no point in me saying that I won't. Wow, this whole 'be honest with yourself about everything' is tough work."

"But you do it so well."

Caroline sighed. "Anyway, about us . . . I will come to your family dinners with you twice a month, if you like - so you can go ahead and buy season tickets to the opera for us. But you have to warn me if they are going to be sad ones, so I know how many tissues to bring with me, and how badly to kick your ass afterwards. And every so often, you can whisk me away on fairytale adventures to faraway places, and I will promise to never ever be tedious about money. Lavish me with your riches, and I won't complain or ask about price tags, because I know it makes you very happy to do so." She reached over and took his hand in hers, pulling it into her lap. She smiled at him, when he turned and smiled at her. "And I want you to be happy, that's super important to me. I want you to be happy, and not the least bit lonely anymore"

"I think I can be. It's been a very long time since I believed it was truly possible, but I do now. A thousand years of loneliness at an end."

"And it's all due to me, because I am awesome."

"It's all due to you, because you are remarkable and magnificent," Klaus said, correcting her. "Because you are generous and honest and kind."

"Pretty sure 'awesome' covers it, but yeah, thanks for the visit to the thesaurus. Being with you isn't going to be bad for my ego at all, I can tell." Caroline looked out the window, still stroking his hand, as a light rain began to fall, streaking her view through the glass. The sunlight had faded a bit with the clouds, but she could still light coming through each droplet. She turned back to Klaus. "I forgot to ask you last night- did you compel John Dodd to forget your conversation with him?"

"Yes, I had to. It might not matter what he knows about me, but he also knew about you. That can't be allowed. Too many people know your secret already, and it concerns me greatly. You are far too vulnerable."

"Still worried about that, huh? Maybe I'm not the only one who needs to start letting some things go. Did you also compel him to tell you where he last saw Jacob Liebster?"

"No."

"You didn't? Wow. That's . . . well, that's great. And surprising."

"Was that a test, Caroline? Did I pass?"

"No, it wasn't a test, and yes, you definitely passed."

Then she looked down, where her bronze dice shooting girl was wrapped in brown paper at her feet, resting on top of Klaus's sketchbook. His sketchbook full of drawings of her and the children. Caroline was going to miss the children. She was glad she would have the sketches to remind her. "I heard you, you know, in the lobby of the hotel - you thought I was busy with my conversation with Sammy and Rhonda, but I heard you on the phone to Elijah. Thank you for arranging to purchase the warehouse in Greenpoint for the Dodds."

"It does not, perhaps, compensate them for the loss of John Dodd jr.'s hypothetical future concert career, but I knew you would want me to do so."

"You weren't upset, were you, when I told Fitz to send the Roman ring to Annie Dodd?"

"Of course not. I understood."

"She's Vesta, not me. I don't get to be Vesta."

"Not perhaps, how you wanted to be. But you are my hearth and my home, so you are still Vesta to me. Forever my goddess."

"Be careful about that pedestal you are building, buddy. Getting a bit extravagant with the compliments - and if I start believing everything you say, you really will have a monster on your hands. And speaking of hands, I think perhaps I am going to keep wearing the Sunstar on this finger, if you don't have any objections," Caroline said, holding her hand out. "I've gotten used to it here, and I kind of like feeling fiancee-ish. Even if that's human thinking, I don't care."

"I was hoping that you would." The look he gave her was so heated, that she felt a tingling begin in her toes and go all the way up her spine.

"Okay, that did it."

"What did what, my love?"

"That look. Yes, that one right there, you are doing it again. That look means that we've got about three hours before we need to find a motel, so I can jump you repeatedly. Maybe less than three hours."

"I will add that to the agenda, Caroline. In three hours we could probably be back in Possum Fry Bayou at the Delight-Me Inn." Klaus looked over at her again, and Caroline shivered in her seat.

"Forget three hours. Forget the Delight-Me Inn. Let's just find one now."

"We are barely even into New Jersey. You can still see the city from here."

"Don't care. Just want to be naked with you."

Klaus immediately took the very first exit. "As you wish, Caroline."

And Caroline laughed because this was never her wish, to find herself here with this man. Caroline Forbes, one of the good guys, falling for the villain in the play. It wasn't her wish, it wasn't her dream, it wasn't the song she ever thought she would sing.

But it didn't matter - this was surprisingly right, and this was shockingly good, and this was definitely bold, and she wasn't scared of anything anymore. So she would sing it. Because yeah . . . this was love.

* * *

AN: Thank you, everyone, for sticking with this story and for reviewing it as well. Much appreciated!

So glad that I got to dust off my philosophy and art history degrees for this story. I don't know as much about any of it as Klaus does (I mean, he probably did shots with Heidegger, and ate Sartre's girlfriend, am I right?) but it was fun re-learning some of this stuff. And yes, Klaus was seriously oversimplifying his explanation of a philosophical bridge.

The artists who provided the songs titles for the chapters are (in order): Siouxsie and the Banshees, Peter Bjorn and John, Feist, M83, Bright Eyes, The Shins, The Avett Brothers, Ray LaMontagne, Dusty Trails, Camera Obscura, Death Cab for Cutie (2 chapters in a row), Tegan and Sara, Sara Lov, Damien Rice, and The Shins (again). Just in case y'all were curious. Klaus would probably hate all of them.


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